Sober Conversations | Secondhand Drinking
Secondhand drinking has been an ongoing topic on my blog and in my consulting and presentation work for several years, now. It is a term to describe what happens to family members and friends and the stranger on the street, to the co-workers and fellow students and society at large. It is what happens to those on the receiving end of a person’s drinking behaviors or who are in the sphere of someone who is. These drinking behaviors are the consequence of a person drinking more than their liver can effectively process and as a result changing the way their brain works thereby changing their behaviors.
Secondhand drinking is complicated. And it’s simple.
To learn more, I invite you to listen to this 30-minute podcast interview of me conducted by Dr. Herby Bell and Dr. Christopher Harrison, founders of Recovery Health Care. Recovery Health Care offers an integrated, whole body, cost effective continuing care approach to allay relapse and support the lifelong process of addiction recovery. This interview is the second in Recovery Health Care’s Sober Conversations series.
To listen, click Sober Conversations Podcast #2: Secondhand Drinking With Lisa Frederiksen
Thanks for listening! Together we can take a stand – not against drinking – but against drinking behaviors. And in that stand, we continue the ongoing effort to end the stigma and shame that surrounds all-things addiction – the stigma and shame that keeps people from seeking recovery from addiction and the impacts of secondhand drinking.
Secondhand drinking is what happens to the wife at work, unable to concentrate, because she’s worried her husband’s boss will fire him for calling in sick, again, after drinking heavily the night before – worried they’ll lose their home if he loses his job.
Secondhand drinking is what happens to the fellow linemen and women of a firefighter who reports for work still processing the alcohol from the binge of the night before, hungover, unable to adequately do his job.
Secondhand drinking is what happens to the boss whose life and the lives of everyone in his family are shattered when his daughter is paralyzed in an accident caused by a drunk driver.
Secondhand drinking is what happens to the child who’s on the receiving end of his parents drinking behaviors, such as their repeated arguments about the drinking – the boy who is unable to sleep at night, to concentrate in school the next day, who becomes isolated and angry because he can’t make the fighting stop.
Lisa Frederiksen
Latest posts by Lisa Frederiksen (see all)
- Does a Loved One Have to Hit Bottom? - November 20, 2022
- Resources for Parents of Children with Substance Use and Mental Disorders - October 18, 2022
- 4 Things to Support Brain Health and Function for Recovery - August 30, 2022
Oh my God!!! What the Fuck!!!!
Better known as OMG & WTF respectively.
“secondhand drinking”???????
(obviously and purposely coined from the clinically unproven term
‘secondhand smoke’)
Alcohol is a choice like food is a choice.
Life is a choice who you spend it with and how. Quit blaming your mom or dad’s drinking already for your own drinking, skin itching, overweight, sleep deprived, unemployed, sour stomach, sad and mad life that you have been talking about for 40 years!!!
Anger, party of one, your table is ready. While volitional potential is a capability we all have, it often is never realized because it is never discovered. As one who has worked with addicts and substance abuse impacted children for the past thirty years, I strongly believe based upon clinical studies, social research data and my own personal experience that alcohol and drug use impact and even arrest the cognitive development of children and the behavior associated with these diseases are indeed accepted causal factors in a variety of psychological problems including depression and PTSD. Guy, I would suggest that you do a little less ranting, a little more research, exercise some discretion in your selection of nouns and get some help for your anger.