Alcoholism has devastating effects on family life. Studies have shown that when one partner in a marriage is an alcoholic, the marriage has only one chance out of ten of lasting. The alcohol
abuser becomes self-centered which hinders his personal relationships and even his day to day living. The alcoholic finds it increasingly difficult to hold a job. He becomes dishonest and insensitive to his family. The alcoholic’s main purpose in life becomes getting the next drink. Mental as well as physical abuse, along with sexual infidelity are only a few of the characteristics of an alcoholic spouse., The worst thing the individual married to an alcoholic can do is to ignore the situation., hoping that the alcoholic will miraculously stop his drinking. That won’t happen, unless he asks for help.
If there are children in the family, they suffer the most from having an alcoholic living in the same house. Children need a structured loving family life during their childhood. When one of the child’s parents is an alcoholic, chaos rules the stress-filled home. Lack of self esteem, anger, helplessness, loneliness, and embarrassment are all felt by the child of an alcoholic. Alcoholics are unpredictable in their behavior; some alcoholics abuse their children either physically or mentally. The effects of alcoholism in the family on young children can have repercussions which last a lifetime.
A child is more likely to become an alcoholic if he has an alcoholic parent.
The children of an alcoholic parent usually have a lifelong issue with trust. It is extremely hard for them to trust anyone.
Oftentimes when a child has an alcoholic parent, the child blames himself for the parent’s alcohol addiction. The child tends to think that if he would just do something different, such as do better in school; be a better child; or not be an expensive burden to the parent; then the parent would stop drinking. Children often think they can ‘help’ the parent to stop drinking, by trying to keep all the liquor in the house poured out. They have the misconception that if the parent doesn’t have anything to drink, then they will quit.
The child does not need to worry about trying to be a ‘better’ child, he has done nothing wrong. The parent is not drinking because of something the child has done; he is drinking because he has made that choice. It also does not matter what the child does to try to get the parent to quit drinking; quitting is a decision the addicted parent will have to make on his own.
