By: LaToya Bowlah
Denzel Washington takes on the role of a functioning alcoholic in the movie, “Flight.”
Photo courtesy of Red Carpet Shelley
To function while dysfunctional is both a profound skill and a curse, perhaps making high-functioning alcoholics unintended illusionists. They attend college, have careers, and raise children while under the influence of alcohol and the consistent burden to appear unaffected.
Many nurture their addiction through denying that they are susceptible to alcoholism.
However the idea that functioning alcoholics are exempt from alcoholism as a disease is far from the truth. Although the DSM-IV TR symptoms of alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse are masked by normative behavioral patterns, the life threatening effects still exist and are often intensified in such cases.
Functioning alcoholics often normalize their liquor consumption by keeping alcohol among daily household grocery items.
Photographed by: LaToya Bowlah
Sarah Allen Benton, author of, “Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic,” Northeastern University graduate, and mental health counselor, is a 5-year recovered alcoholic. Constantly struggling with denial about her dependence on liquor, Benton described the hidden problem of high-functioning alcoholism as a tragedy that is seldom told. These brave few are only a
Sarah Allen Benton’s, ” Understanding the High Functioning Alcoholic.”
microcosm of the millions of unnamed illusionists. Doctors, teachers, C.E.Os, students, journalists, and police officers make up the lot who lead their lives undetected of severe alcoholism.
The number of functioning alcoholics is vast but seldom counted and is a battle which 50 percent of alcoholics continue to endure.
