What is a functional alcoholic? Is it possible to be an alcoholic and still a functional member of society with a job and a family, etc.? Opinions are split on the questions but let's take a look at what might qualify someone as a functional alcoholic.

What defines a functional alcoholic? Well, there is no hard and fast rule when it comes to defining an alcoholic. The general belief is that nobody can know whether another person is or is not an alcoholic. Only that person can know for sure. Therefore we examine whether someone is a functioning alcoholic the best we can do is theorize about what makes an alcoholic.

Some misconceptions about Alcoholism

Many people are mistakenly of the belief that you must fulfill certain criteria in order to be an alcoholic. These can vary but some, for instance, believe that to be an alcoholic you must:

1. Drink alcohol every day.
2. Have lost a job or a marriage do to drinking.
3. Drink in the morning.
4. Have made one or more trips to a rehab or treatment center.
5. Made one or more visits to jail as a result of drinking.

The reason these are misconceptions is that every alcoholic has their own line or limit. This is often referred to as the alcoholic's bottom. There are low bottom drunks who end up homeless and jobless as a result of their drinking. However, there are many more alcoholics who never suffer those kind of drastic consequences of their drinking. There are no hard and fast rules. The question, when trying to answer whether one is a functional alcoholic, becomes one of consequences.

For instance if a person has ever suffered interpersonal, financial, legal, vocational, psychological or medical consequences as a result of their drinking they may have a problem with alcohol. Now this does not mean that one is an alcoholic. There are many who can best be classified as problem drinkers. These individuals have faced obstacles as a result of their drinking but have been able to stop or moderate their consumption when given sufficient reason to do so.

On the other hand, an alcoholic is an individual when faced with a compelling reason to stop or moderate their drinking is unable to do so. Oh, they may have a million justifications or excuses as to why they haven't stopped, but the simple fact is that they have substantial reason to quit and they haven't. These individuals are alcoholic.

So, then what is a functional alcoholic. A functional alcoholic is often described as a person who drinks frequently but does not incur sufficient consequences that they must stop or moderate their drinking. Many recovery specialists believe that functional alcoholics do not truly exist. They hold that a person is either alcoholic, meaning their drinking will continue to incur consequences until they either stop drinking or die from the disease, or they are not alcoholic at all, meaning that if such consequences were to present themselves they would be able to remedy them without any outside help.

It is my belief that many people who believe themselves to be functioning alcoholics are simply in a less advanced state of alcoholism and their consequences will continue to mount until they are forced to stop drinking. One can not remain both a functioning member or society and an alcoholic for very long. They are in fact mutually exclusive.

Alcoholism is progressive, terminal condition. If a person continues in their disease untreated they will either continue to deteriorate over time (and this can be a slow process) or they will die as a result of their drinking. If on the other hand one is merely a problem drinker, they can continue to drink until presented with a reason to stop or moderate which they will be able to do without to much difficulty.

Therefore, when all is said and done, it is likely that there is no such thing as a functional alcoholic. All alcoholics will at some point become dsyfunctional. If they do not, then it is likely that they never were an alcoholic in the first place. That, in a nutshell, is a definition of a functional alcoholic.