Alcoholism is a
complex disorder with physical, psychological and social aspects, having far
reaching harmful effect on the family and society, as well as on the physical
and mental health of the alcoholic himself. (Edwards and Grant, 1976)
Alcoholism is one
of the major health and social problems all over the world. The study on Global
burden of disease (Murray & Lopex 1999a, 1999b) identified alcohol use as
one of the global risk factors, accounting for 15% of all deaths in the world
and 35% of disability adjusted life years and 40% of the global burden of
disease (as cited in Jurgen Rehm, et al., 2004).
The second national
family survey (1998-1999)results indicate that among the Indian population, 17%
of men and 2% of women aged 15 and above are consuming alcohol (Saibaba, 2001).
Epidemiological studies conducted in India showed that 20-30% of our population
is using alcohol at a harmful level (Ponnudurai R, Jay Kumar J, Raju B,
Pattamuthu R., 1991). Alcoholism has been called the ‘family illness’ because
of its impact on the entire family unit. For every case, there are multiple
victim, Apart from the alcohol dependent person, the prime victim is his wife
as there is no way she can escape as ignore the alcohol dependent husband. So
in the day to day interaction of family life, she is confronted with alcoholic
behavior. As the husband’s addiction gets worse day by day, she is compelled to
face several unmanageable problems. Unable to cope with there problems, she
constantly lives under severe tension and pressure, This result in her becoming
desperate, anger, frustrated, nervous, afraid and guilty.
The relationship
between marriage and alcohol abuse has been the topic of numerous studies in
the west over the past three decades though these issues have not been
extensively investigated in India. Ranjana Tiwani et al., (2010) studied the
presumptive stressful life events among spouses of alcoholics on sample 100
spouses of alcoholics (experimental group) and 100 spouses of non alcoholic
(control group). They found various problems faced by spouses of alcoholics
that 73.0% wives of alcoholics were facing physical abuse while spouse of non
alcoholics were facing only 17% different types of emotional problems present
were 89% in alcoholics spouses while 32% present alcoholics spouse of non
alcoholic. 91% alcoholics spouse were having insecurity problem related to
self. Their children and husband while it was present 27% in non alcoholics.
Spouse of alcoholics had 68.0% financial problem whereas only 35% spouse of non
alcoholics were facing financial problem. The spouse of alcoholic suffer from
elevated rates of depression, anxiety and somatic complains, report low levels
of relationship satisfaction (Halford et al., 1999) and often are subjected to
verbal and physical abuse (Leonard & jacob, 1988; Van-Hasselt, Morrison
& Bellack, 1985; Leonard & Serchak, 1993).
Adjustment to an alcohol
problem of husband may result in an increased in the wive’s emotional and
physical illness (Bloom, 1985) and altered familial function and experience
considerable psychological distress. (Kogan & Jackson 1965: Orford et al.,
2001).
Sangeeta, Arya Tanwar
& K. Ranga Swamy (2010) studied the effects of alcohol dependents on the
dimensions of marital satisfaction, family environment and Quality of life on
sample of 30 wives under the influence of their partner’s alcohol dependence.
They found that excessive drinking and alcohol dependence can exert severe
negative effect on the life partners in terms of marital satisfaction, family
environment and quality of life perceived by them.
Alcohol problems
are related to increased rates of marital violence, poor communication, and
feelings of marital distress that lead to a greater risk of divorce (Leonard
& Mudar, 2003). Marital satisfaction is realted strongly to a couple’s
ability to communicate effectively. But heavy alcohol use is associated with
more expression of anger, and less warmth and unity in the relationship. These
factors decrease a couple’s satisfaction in their marriage and create greater
tension (Jacob and Jennison, 2001).
Sathya Narayana Rao
& Kuruvilla (1992) found that discord, voidance, indulgence and fearful
withdrawal were the commonest coping behaviors and marital breakdown, taking
special action, assertion and sexual withdrawal were least coping behaviors.
Appropriate or
inappropriate coping strategies adopted by the wives to deal with the stress
depend partly on the social adjustment of the individual with alcoholic. The
coping strategies used by them include pleading, threatening, arguing,
avoiding, withdrawing sexually, being indulging, taking help and taking step
towards separation (Orford and Guthrie, 1976).
More research is
needed for Psychiatric social worker to have the knowledge necessary to help
the wives of alcoholics to cope with their stressors. In order to design the
interventions to help these women to cope with the stress of being married to
an alcoholic, Psychiatric social worker need to learn more about their
experiences and coping strategies. So dearth of information in Indian setting
this study was designed to assess the ways of coping strategies and
psychological well-being among wives of alcoholics.
Moos and Moos
(1984) found that greater use of avoidant coping behaviors in response to a
recent stressful event was associated with greater alcohol use, anxiety,
depression, physical symptoms and medication use among spouses of alcoholism,
present study was also found that spouses of alcohol dependent patients used
more of maladaptive focus coping, not problem focus coping and adaptive focus coping
behavior however we did not examine the effect of the mention factor in them.
The families with
alcohol dependent people even more support from the family members especially
from the spouses is required. So, important things like Psychological well-being,
strengthening of the coping mechanism of the spouses (wives) of the alcohol
dependent persons can be applied to make the family situations more conductive
for these dependent people and successful application of different therapeutic
interventions than the normal control group.
References
Edwards, G. and
Grant, M., 1976: Alcoholism: Ne w knowledge and new Responses, Baltimore: Park
Press.
Jurgen Rehm, et al
(2004). Alcohol use In: Ezzati, Lopez, Rodgers 7 Murray ed. Comparative
Quantification of Health Risks (Vol.1pp 959-961) Geneva: WHO
Saibaba (2001).
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Tiwari, Ranjana,
Srivastava, A.s., Kaushik, S.S. (2010). Indian Journal of Social Science
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Halford, W.K.,
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Leonard, K.E.,
& Jacob, T. (1988). Alcohol, alcoholism and family violence. In van
Hasselt, V.B., Morrison, R.L., Bellack, A.S., and hersen, M. (Eds) handbook of
Family Violence, pp 383-406. New York: Plenum Press.
Sangeeta Arya
Tanwar & K. Ranga Swamy (2010) Alcohol Dependence and its influences on
marital satisfaction, family environment and quality of life of the spouses.
Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology.
Leonard, K., &
Mudar, P. (2003). Peer and Partner drinking and the transition to marriage. A
Longitudinal examination of selection and influence processes. Psychology of
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Jennison, K., and
Johnson, K (2001). Parental alcoholism as a risk factor for DSM IV defined
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