A Functioning Alcoholic?

Sean Levine wrote this in Alcohol Addiction on Monday, July 14, 2014

Some people say “Robin, I’m a functioning alcoholic!” Which, you can be one. It’s like being a paraplegic lap dancer.

- Robin Williams

We’ve all heard the term before: “functioning alcoholic.” Supposedly, non- “functioning alcoholics” are ragged homeless men who drink beer out of brown paper bags. By contrast, a functioning alcoholic is supposed to be able to function in life: they hold a steady and perhaps well-paying job, they have a family, etc. As the saying goes, they’ve “got all their ducks in a row.”

According to Robin Williams, functioning alcoholics are like paraplegic lap dancers — it’s possible to be one, but it’s extremely hard to pull off. This is a great comparison, coming from someone who’s had his own struggles with drugs and alcohol. As Robin and every other recovering alcoholic knows, labeling someone a “functioning alcoholic” only confuses the issue. It doesn’t matter what job you’ve got, how big your wallet is, how stable you think your home life is, or how prosperous your future seems. An alcoholic is an alcoholic is an alcoholic, and each one has one thing in common: they drink to get through the day, to eat and to sleep, to make the bad times good and the good times better. They drink to live.

The first step of Alcoholics Anonymous says, “our lives were unmanageable.” This doesn’t mean that alcoholics are incapable of doing laundry or balancing a checkbook. It means that an alcoholic — functioning alcoholic or otherwise — is capable of these things, so long as they have a stiff drink nearby. Living an unmanageable life means that alcohol manages life for you. Sometimes it tells you to lie and steal, sometimes it tells you to dress up and go to work. “Functioning alcoholics” are alcoholics all the same because they’re not the ones in control — the booze is.

Whether you’re a functioning alcoholic or a garden variety wino, there’s only one way to get help. It starts with finding a treatment center, so call 877-968-6682 today!