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Alcoholics drink every day.
Alcoholics are unable to maintain their careers.
Alcoholics are unable to provide for their families.
Alcoholics always drink alone.
Alcoholics are usually homeless and uneducated.
These are just a few of the prevailing myths and stereotypes about alcoholics that allow high-functioning alcoholics (HFAs) to minimize and justify their drinking to themselves, loved ones and colleagues. HFAs defy these stereotypes and often go undetected because they do not fit the image of the “typical” alcoholic.
An HFA is an alcoholic who is able to maintain his or her professional and personal life—career, home, family and friendships—all while drinking alcoholically. He or she has the same disease as the stereotypical alcoholic, but it manifests or progresses differently.
A 2007 study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) concluded that about 20% of alcoholics are “functional” and that only 9% are of the “chronic severe subtype,” fitting the stereotype of the low-bottom alcoholic.1 Other addiction experts estimate that between 75% and 90% of alcoholics are high-functioning.
Many Attorneys Are HFAs
Certain personality traits and tendencies allow HFAs, including lawyers, to succeed professionally while drinking alcoholically. These include having perfectionist and overachiever tendencies, a strong work ethic, high standards of personal achievement, a competitive and “workaholic” nature, and a strong physical constitution.
Unfortunately, alcohol-use disorders that go both unnoticed and untreated are rampant within the legal profession. In one study in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, problem drinking developed in 18% of lawyers who practiced for 2 to 20 years and in 25% of lawyers who practiced for 20 years or longer. 2 Additionally, 30% of lawyers have been found to abuse alcohol. 3 In fact, the number of lawyers with alcohol-use disorders is above the national average of about 9%.4
Recognize the HFA’s Profile
HFAs have certain characteristics in common. The lists below are comprehensive but not exhaustive.
In terms of their denial mechanisms, HFAs:
●have difficulty viewing themselves as alcoholics because they don’t fit the stereotypical image
●believe that they are not alcoholics because they are successful
●use alcohol as a reward and/or justify drinking to relieve stress
In terms of their professional and personal lives, HFAs:
●are well respected for professional/academic performance and accomplishments
● maintain a social life
●often drink with colleagues and not always alone
In terms of their drinking habits, HFAs:
●experience a craving to drink more after one alcoholic drink
●obsess about the next drinking opportunity
●display personality changes and/or compromise morals when intoxicated
●repeat unwanted drinking patterns and behaviors
HFAs seem to live a “double life” in that they:
●appear to the outside world to be managing life well
●are skilled at living a compartmentalized life (separating work and drinking life)
When HFAs hit bottom, they experience:
●few tangible losses and consequences from their drinking, often by sheer luck
●recurrent thoughts that because they have not “lost everything,” they have not hit bottom5
Anyone who identifies with the characteristics listed above, whether a lawyer or a homeless person, needs to be honest with himself. Alcoholism is a chronic, progressive and lifelong disease that needs to be treated. Impaired lawyers are putting their lives and those of their families at risk, as well as sacrificing the quality of service they are providing for their clients. It is time to reveal the true face of the alcoholic and break the stigma attached to alcoholism so that lawyers feel comfortable reaching out for help from lawyer assistance programs, recovery program support groups or therapy.
RESOURCES
Benton, Allen Sarah, Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic: Professional Views and Personal Insights , Praeger Publishers, 2009.
- H.B. Moss, C.M. Chen, and H. Yi, “Subtypes of Alcohol Dependence in a Nationally Representative Sample,” Drug and Alcohol Dependence 91, no. 203 (2007): 149-158. ↩
- G.A.H. Benjamin, E. J. Darling, and B. Sales, “The Prevalence of Depression, Alcohol Abuse, and Cocaine Abuse among United States Lawyers,” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 13, no. 3 (1990): 233–246. ↩
- R.G. Frances, V. Alexopoulos, and V. Yandow, “Lawyers’ Alcoholism,” Advances in Alcohol and Substance Abuse 4, no. 2 (1984): 59–66, quoted in Jeffrey Lynn Speller, Executives in Crisis: Recognizing and Managing the Alcoholic, Drug-Addicted or Mentally Ill Executive (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989), 23. ↩
- National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, “National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions,” Alcohol Alert 70 (October 2006). ↩
- Benton, Sarah Allen, Understanding the High-Functioning Alcoholic: Professional Views and Personal Insights. (Westport,Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 2009): 12-13. ↩
Learn the facts about Alcohol Dependence. For evidence-based information on Alcohol Dependence (Alcoholism) and Alcohol Abuse, please visit us at AlcoholAnswers.org
There are comprehensive sections for the Alcohol Dependent and the Families and Friends along with information on evidence-based treatment modalities – including medicated-assisted treatment – Resources, Alcohol & Health information, and Discussion Communities for support and information.
AlcoholAnswers.org
Geez, can’t I just have a beer? http://tinyurl.com/ceakb2
My article inThe Complete Lawyer http://tinyurl.com/ceakb2
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[...] despite their disease, according to mental health counselor Sarah Allen Benton, writing in the Complete Lawyer. She writes that it’s important for alcoholic lawyers to reach out for help, even though they may [...]
I think paring the whole population down to just lawyers overlooks the main vein that runs in the disease; remember (we) are many and varied and the alcoholic needs to be honest w/ themselves. While professionally they can function – home life, if any is probably dismal or non-existant, personal relationships have fallen by the wayside and they are being enabled to maintain their functioning by co-workers, office staff, partners, etc. Quite simply, their practice is the last thing to give way but the rest of life has become unmanageable. They may not seem to fall far because they got money and a lead job in a firm where the associates make them look good or they (the associates) suffer. The people written about have not yet fallen but they will/can, the human will can only last so long, just like health. I think the emphasis should be on self-monitoring to see if there is a problem , strip away the facade ,be honest and ask for help. Alcoholism kills,cripples and bankrupts. It is a disservice to say there exists a group who can cope w/the disease – it provides those addicted with a “false” hope of having their liqour and drinking it too-remember they/we deal with a cunning,baffling and powerful disease. Otherwise it was a nice sociological article full of yummy stats. No offense meant. Thanks-rotcivbat (victor)
Reading: “High-Functioning Alcoholics: Lawyers Are Not Above The `Bar’” http://bit.ly/xM7q