Alcohol and the Family Essay -- Alcoholism Drinking Essays Research Pa

Alcohol and the Family In the United States al ane, there are 28 million children of alcoholics - seven million of these children are under the age of eighteen. either day, these children experience the horrors of living with an alcoholic parent. 40%-50% of children of alcoholics grow up and buzz off alcoholics themselves. Others develop eating disorders or become workaholics. Children of alcoholics receive mixed messages, inconsistency, upredictability, betrayal, and sometimes physical and sexual abuse from their parents. They are made to grow up too fast because they must help keep the family structure unneurotic by doing housework and taking care of siblings since the alcoholic is not doing his or her part. Children form roles that they play to help disguise the disease. The roles help distract mess from seeing the real problem and serve to protect the family so it stinkpot continue to function. There are five roles that the family members will take on-- the enabler, the her o, the scapegoat, the garbled child, and the mascot. The enabler is usually the spouse or the parent of the alcoholic. He takes on the conventionalism duties that the alcoholic would normally carry out such as cleanup spot the house, taking care of the children, or even something as simple as walking the dog. The enabler also makes excuses for the alcoholic. He may call his wifes boss and articulate him she is sick when really she is home with a hang-over. Or he faculty explain to a neighbor that the living path lamp broke because the two-year-old apropos knocked it off the table when in reality it was thrown across the room in a drunken fit. This act of covering up does cryptograph but harm the family in the end. The enabler is making excuses and lying to hide the square act... ...out the affects alcoholism has on the family, one may think that it is a lifetime full of endless turmoil. There is help out there, though, which should begin in the school system. Schools in dispensability to educate kids about alcohol abuse and fall in an ongoing trusting relationship with kids who need help. The children aren not to blame for the actions of their parents and they need someone to help them understand that its not their fault and they can buffer the cycle. This way the children will know that they have at least one person they can turn to for help and that they arent alone. Bibliography 1. Children of Alcoholism, Barbara L. Wood, New York University Press, 1987 2. Working with Children of Alcoholics, Bryan E. Robinson, Lexington Books, 1989 3. middle Abuse Treatment A Family Systems Perspective, Edith M. Freeman, Sage Publications, 1993