Alcoholism, as well as other substance abuse disorders, can negatively affect social interactions, physical health, mental health, and financial decision-making. Because of these harmful consequences of substance abuse, a parent or legal guardian’s eligibility for retaining child custody can be negatively influenced. It can be difficult to navigate the legal side of child custody cases, especially when alcoholism or other substance abuse disorders are considered. For a clearer understanding of your legal rights in child custody cases involving alcoholism, contact a knowledgeable lawyer from King Law Offices with locations in Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Haywood, and Watauga counties in North Carolina, York County in South Carolina, and Washington County in Tennessee. To set up a consultation, call (888) 748-KING and more clearly understand your legal rights.
What Constitutes Alcoholism
The NIH defines alcohol use disorder, or alcoholism, as “a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences.” In short, alcoholism involves the misuse of alcohol, despite its harmful effects on everyday life. This is considered a brain disorder and is a relatively common mental ailment, being found in about 10% of Americans age 12 and older.
The state of Tennessee is ranked among the top 10 states for binge drinking, a practice that often foreshadows alcohol use disorder. Since alcoholism is relatively common, it often becomes an aggravating factor in legal cases, including those involving child custody. Though alcoholism does not ultimately determine an individual’s eligibility for maintaining child custody, it can negatively affect that eligibility, since alcoholism can lead to neglectful or abusive tendencies from legal guardians to those put under their care.
Alcoholism’s Main Consequences
Alcoholism can have many different adverse consequences. According to the CDC, short-term effects of alcohol abuse include:
- Injuries, including vehicle crashes, falls, and burns
- Alcohol poisoning
- Miscarriage or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
These can result from even just one occasion of excessive drinking. Longer exposure to excessive amounts of alcohol can result in adverse conditions such as cancer, heart disease, liver disease, stroke and a weakened immune system. It can also result in depression, anxiety, dementia, and familial drama.
These harmful outcomes of excessive drinking can create an unsafe environment for children, making alcoholism a determining factor in child custody cases.
Reasons to Revoke Child Custody
Typically, when an individual has child custody revoked, there is an indication of alleged neglect or abuse within the parent/guardian-child relationship. Neglect is defined as the failure to provide and care for a child properly. Abuse, in contrast, is physical, sexual, and emotional injury inflicted upon the child by whoever is responsible for their custody, care, or concern. In other words, neglect is not doing what is necessary for a child to thrive, and abuse is doing what is harmful to the child. When an individual cannot properly provide for a child or exhibits abusive tendencies toward them, they can be found to be unfit for custody.
Within the state of Tennessee, these neglectful or abusive traits can be a determining factor in child custody cases. Many different issues can be behind these neglectful or abusive tendencies, including mental health issues, such as depression, personality disorders, such as narcissistic personality disorder, and substance abuse disorders, such as alcoholism.
The Connection
Now, because abuse of alcohol results in decreased attention, lack of critical thinking, and reaction time, as well as affects mental health, leading to depression, anxiety, and familial drama, it is considered, among other factors, by many states including Tennessee, when determining a parent or guardian’s eligibility to retain child custody in a child custody case. A parent or guardian with an alcohol addiction may not be best suited to care for his or her child at that time. Alcohol addiction, in addition to leading to mental illness and physical injury, can lead to financial instability.
As such, it is necessary to determine if an individual is able to put the needs of the child above his or her own needs, working to care for and support the child monetarily. Though the results of a child custody case involving alcoholism can vary, alcoholism is often an aggravating factor in an individual’s evaluation of fitness to retain child custody. If you have more questions about how alcoholism could affect a child custody case, especially within the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, contact King Law Offices to speak to a learned family law, criminal defense, civil litigation, or transactional law lawyer.
Alcoholism and Child Custody
Alcoholism does not just affect the individual’s eligibility to retain child custody. If alcohol abuse becomes a problem after child custody decisions have been finalized in court, the other party may return to court and request a modification to the custody plan. When alcohol abuse is involved, the removal of custody can be preemptive in an attempt to avoid any physical or emotional harm that could come to the child from the alcohol-dependent guardian. Another modification to the custody plan may be made if the substance abuse ceases and the individual proves that he or she is fit to care for the child.
Contact an Experienced and Seasoned Family Law Attorney
Alcoholism can significantly affect an individual’s ability to care for a child. As a reasonably addictive substance, individuals who overindulge in alcohol can experience harmful consequences. They may experience physical injury, illness, mental health struggles, and even familial difficulties from an overindulgence in alcohol. Because of these harmful side effects of alcohol abuse, alcoholism can be a factor taken into consideration when determining an individual’s eligibility to retain custody of a child. Alcoholism can lead an otherwise loving and caring individual to exhibit neglectful and even abusive traits, leading to them being deemed unfit to maintain child custody.
Since alcoholism can lead to traits that are considered neglectful or abusive, it can be a deciding factor in child custody cases and must be taken seriously by all involved in such cases. If you or your loved one is concerned about how alcoholism may affect a child custody case, contact a family law, civil litigation, criminal defense, or transactional law attorney from King Law Offices today. With locations in Forsyth, Mecklenburg, Haywood, and Watauga counties in North Carolina, York County in South Carolina, and Washington County in Tennessee, King Law Offices would love to help you understand all your legal rights. To schedule a consultation, call (888) 748-KING and take the next steps in your legal journey.