We live in a time that drug and alcohol abuse is rampant across the nation.
According to the NSPCC website, the risks to children in homes where parents abuse drugs and/or alcohol include "an increased risk of violence in families where parents abuse substances. Children can also suffer from lack of boundaries and discipline, and live chaotic lives. This can seriously affect their psychological and emotional development, and may cause problems with their relationships later on in life."
In addition to parental use of drugs and alcohol, studies show an increased number of teenagers across the nation are abusing prescription drugs, arguably the fastest growing problem drug in the country, and in Kentucky. It ranks second on the most commonly abused drugs list behind marijuana.
The website drugfree.org features an article on teen prescription drug abuse. For the full article, click here.
The article says "as many as one in five teens say they have taken a prescription drug without having a prescription for it."
Like in Shadow Tag and most of the other books and stories we have read in class feature alcoholism. I found the following statistics at www.learn-about-alcoholism.com.
Alcoholism in Families
Children who are raised with one or both parents with alcoholism are at increased risk of developing life-long emotional problems.
In addition, research sponsored by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse reveals that children of alcoholic parents, especially sons of alcoholic fathers, are four to nine times more likely to have problems with alcohol than children of non-alcoholic parents.
The American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry reported that most children of alcoholics also have experienced some form of parental neglect or abuse attributed to the disease.
For more information, including more problems children in an alcoholic home face, visit the website here.
What are your thoughts?
Do you have experience or know someone who has first-hand experience with drug and/or alcohol abuse in their home that you would like to share?
Did you post a source for the last part? I couldn't tell. These sorts of reports on the stats seem so dry, don't they, compared to what's going on in real people's lives, and why they're having such problems with substance abuse. Maybe you were quoting the bulk of the article. I can't really tell what part is yours.
ReplyDeleteThe last paragraph is mine...I had put more space between the researched part and my comment, but it didn't stay when I posted I guess. My intention was to use the stats and resources to spur discussion in the comments to get more "real" with the topic. I've posted on the discussion board to let everyone know we've posted updates...but people may not be checking much this week since we have the writing week.
ReplyDeleteI added a couple of questions to the post...hopefully that will help get some discussion going :)
ReplyDeleteMy father is a “recovering” alcoholic. The recovering part is a new thing. He only stopped drinking after being in jail for three weeks and having to detox the hard way. I actually wrote my personal narrative on this part of my life. (If you want to read it, e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.) I spent my childhood being haunted by the ideas of him drinking and driving. I used to spend him pamphlets on alcoholism. For a long time, I was so loyal to him that I couldn’t admit that he was an alcoholic. I was too caught up with the idea that he was a good person and that he wouldn’t let something like alcohol get in the way of being my dad. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what it did though. Only recently have I been able to start talking about my experiences with my dad and the many ways in which he messed up my childhood. I used to call him all the time trying to get him to talk to me and to be there for me, but he never really was. His alcoholism was at least one of the reasons that my parents got a divorce when I was five and my brother was 7. I’m not saying that I have had the worst experience with an alcoholic parent that anyone has ever had because I haven’t and I know that. I just think that something that makes up so much of who I have become is an important part of my life. I have become a lot stronger because of the lack of a relationship that I have had with my father mainly because of his alcoholism. I like to concentrate on the strength that I have pulled from the relationship because otherwise it would rip me apart. I hope anyone in a situation similar to mine can and does chose to say the same thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fmamiliar with hard-core drugs at all, but I do know that alcohol can destroy lives, in more ways tan just a physical way.
ReplyDeleteI've always known that it is more probable for someone who was born of either an alcoholic mother or father to one day suffer from alcoholism, but what about those whose prents did not drink at all?
I have dated 2 alcoholics. Neither of their parents drank at all. One of which was a very sad, extreme case...sad because he truly is a good guy, and extreme because of the excessiveness of his drinking habbits.
This guy drank when he woke up, drank when he worked out in the fields, drand when takimg a break...at lunch/dinner, drank before he came to see me, drank before he worked out.....drank before he went to bed. AND THIS GUY DENIED THAT HE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC!
His problem is definitely what tore us apart, and I know him well enough to say that it's tearing his life up with his family and friends as well.
People do idiotic things when tey are drunk. This guy decided to get mad and throw a $5000, platinum, diamond solitare ring into the woods. He of course regreted it in the morning, but tht ring was never seen again.
Though neither of his parents drank...ever...he did mention the fact that they were very hard on him - neglected his feelings. This post says that "most children of alcoholics also have experienced some form of parental neglect or abuse attributed to the disease." If this is true, than maybe the fact that he had issues with his raisings was the main contributor to his problem.
He experimented with pot and Zanex as well...