The first step is looking for patterns in their drinking habits. Do they drink everyday? Every weekend. Only on Sundays? Do they drink because the kids were screaming all day? Their job is particularly stressful that day?

As we all know, an occasional social drink and drinking to forget a stressful situation are two separate entities. Someone who is clearly drinking to relieve stress is to be considered a potential alcoholic. If you spouse is consistently having to have a few drinks after work just to relax, most likely they are having alcohol dependency problems.

Many recovering alcoholics state that they always tended to blame someone else for all of their problems; their boss was difficult, their spouse nagged all the time, money was scarce. Instead of admitting to any responsibility, they drank their problems away. Has your spouse been blaming everyone around them for their perceived problems?

Alcoholics tend to ignore their family and the problems associated with handling the day to day tasks of raising a family. Do you feel that you are needing to take up the slack to make the bills, fix your home, or take care of the children? Take a close look at where your spouse is failing for you and your family and see if it can be traced back to alcohol usage.

The facts of the matter whether taken from a survey or a book are always identical and that an affirmative answer to the above questions can only mean one thing and that is that your partner is an alcoholic. A further complication to the situation is that it doesn't only depend on the quantity of alcohol consumed but also any resulting erratic behaviour patterns that upset the family ambience. But putting all this aside, there is a way forward, but first you just need to able to sit down together and talk about it.

The conclusion to such a terrible situation to be in is that you are not the only person in or who has been in the same situation and that your way out is through mutual guidance and support. You can start to find support from other people who have suffered the same as you have at http://www.stopdrinkingadvice.org/guide/ and you will soon realize that you have already taken the first step for you and your spouse.