Children Of Alcoholics

11 Pages 2720 Words

ir family and school or work life. Alcoholism is a disease. People with the disease alcoholism have no control over their drinking because their bodies handle alcohol differently than those of normal people. Problem drinkers may learn to control their drinking by consuming only small amounts of alcohol and then stopping. Alcoholics, however, must stop drinking completely if they are to get well. In life it is almost impossible to tell problem drinkers from alcoholics. Problem drinkers as well as alcoholics will tell you they can quit anytime. More often than not, they don’t. Many problem drinkers who start drinking to cope with life eventually become alcoholics whose bodies crave booze in order to function. Both drink to the point of drunkenness. Both allow their drinking to make trouble for themselves and their families (Porterfield, 1985).
Living with a non-recovering alcoholic in the family can contribute to stress of all family members. Not all alcoholic families experience or react to stress in the same way. The level of dysfunction or resiliency of the non alcoholic spouse is a key factor in the effects of problems impaction on children. It creates loud obnoxious screaming, ranting, raving and a lot of times domestic violence which we will get into later. Who are the COA’s? Children of alcoholics are young people from all sorts of backgrounds. They come from poor families, middle class families and upper class families. They are children who live in the homes of Alcoholics. Most often, the drinking problem causes these children considerable pain and difficulty in their day-to-day lives. (Berger, 1993) There are many symptoms of being a child of an alcoholic. They are generally lonely and depressed probably with very low self esteem. They have great fears of abandonment and distrust of self as well as others. Home is not a warm loving and secure place for these kids compared to a home where independence an...