Children From Alcoholic Families (Family Matters)

Children From Alcoholic Families (Family Matters) Review

Alcoholism is a “family disease” because of its harmful effects on all family members. When one family member is addicted to alcohol, the other family members usually react to the alcoholic, the “identified patient,” by becoming emotionally sick. Experts have discovered predictable behavior patterns that occur in almost all alcoholic families. Known as “roles,” these behavior patterns often serve to preserve not only the family unit, but the alcoholic’s addiction as well. This behavior by well-meaning family members is the result of unconscious thinking.

Children of alcoholic families grow up without a normal childhood. They live in a nearly constant state of fear, confusion, embarrassment, guilt and shame. They often keep friends from the home because they fear exposing the family’s shameful secret. Children of alcoholic families also may sometimes be tired in school or absent because of the turmoil and violence in the alcohol-afflicted home.

There is evidence that alcohol plays an important role in many cases of child abuse and neglect. Violence, incest and other forms of sexual abuse are three times more common in alcoholic families than they are in the general population. For some children, such as the boy who follows his father’s example and starts drinking heavily in high school, the toll is recognized early. For many children of alcoholic families, though, the scars of a difficult childhood may not appear until many years later.