Alcoholism and its effects on the family

Chapter Three: Women and their daily life

12. Alcoholism and its effects on the family

When he is sober, he feels depressed because he feels that he’s such a drunk, but when he’s drunk, he no longer feels anything and also then his money has run out. He is always thinking of giving up drinking, but then, when he runs into some of his friends and they invite him to drink, he starts all over again. He always used to drink, but it was just once in a while. But now it’s been three years since his wife died of some sickness and since that date, he hasn’t stopped drinking. His life now is quite sad because he ends up lying in the streets. Before, he used to dedicate himself to his business and he and his wife worked together. The woman wasn’t sick for a very long time. She got stomach pains, headaches, and was vomiting. After just two days, she was dead.

This business is harmful to people’s health and it also destroys them financially. Sometimes the people who sell alcohol rob the drunks or otherwise take advantage of them. Sometimes the men see that they don’t have any more money and they begin to borrow it, or they run out of money for household needs, or they can no longer pay their debts, and this is a very big problem.

Testimony of a woman about the problems alcohol brings about in the family:

“There have been many problems with my husband because he gets drunk a lot and it makes me very sad, since I have suffered my whole life, in my childhood, and now. And I have to say that I don’t know whether or not he will change in the future or if he will go on being the same. To help him, I try to talk about it with him when he’s sober, because when he isn’t drinking he’s very likeable and understanding. It’s only when he’s drunk that he quits thinking, he gets real angry and that frightens me a lot. My grandmother tells me that my deceased father also used to get very angry and they say that he made my mother suffer. I start to think about this and realize that the same thing is happening to me. Sometimes I tell myself that if this is inherited, well, then this explains why we have problems; but when he’s sober, then everything is fine because then he supports me.”