Stress e qualidade de vida em esposas de alcoolistas.

Abstract

This works object was to study the stress and the quality of life in alcohol addict’s wives. Stress can be defined as an organism’s reaction, with physical and/or psychological, that occurs during a confronting situation that may frighten, irritate, excite or cause intense happiness (LIPP, 1996). To be related to an alcohol addict, according to Edwards (1999), tends to cause stress, mainly because of an unexpected behavior. In that matter alcohol addicts wives, in particular, don’t know what to expect when they find themselves with their husbands drunk. Before this scene we opted to research about the stress and the quality of life in alcohol addicts wives. In this research 31 alcohol addict wives were evaluated. Alcohol addicts were in the beginning of their ambulatorial rehabilitation treatment in a psychiatrical clinic in the city of Garanhuns – PE. The following instruments were used: Lipp’s Stress Symptom Inventory for Adults (ISSL); The Quality of Life Inventory (IQV) and interviews. The results showed that, 93.54% of the alcohol addicts wives presented stress, 67.7% in the resistance level and 12.9% in the level of exhaustion. To analyze the level of significance related to the occurrence of stress in the data of the present research, the X² (qui-quadrate) was used. The results found were considered significant for 1 α in a 1%. These can be indicating the harm caused by a close relationship between the alcoholics and their wives, interfering in their quality of life. The interviews analyzed identified that the wives deal with, in their daily routine, internal and external sources of stress. As to speak of the external stressful causes, one of the facts that overstresses Is the fact that she’s responsible for all families matters; also she doesn’t receive any help on how to cope with her husband, and added to that suffers verbal aggression. We found our that the internal sources are: the impossibility to identify any alternative so to help in their husbands recovery; they nurture anger when they find them drunk; feel tense and worried when their husbands leave the house at any time. Related to the strategies used by the alcoholic’s wives: search for self-orientation on how to cope with their husband’s alcoholism; conversations with other people about the problem and the help needed to make their husbands start an alcoholism treatment. It’s also important to note that the results were related to the studies based on the data collected for this specific group. Therefore we recognize the need of other researches as to get to know alcoholic’s wives better, becoming possible to offer them proper conditions based on the stress control strategies.