How Growing Up With Alcohol Parents Can Affect Children Psychologically

Family therapy plays a crucial role in the recovery process, as it helps family members understand the effects of addiction and develop healthier coping mechanisms. Moreover, Al-Anon groups are peer-led support groups designed specifically for those affected by a loved one’s alcoholism. These groups provide a safe space for family members to share their experiences, offer emotional support, and learn from one another. Participating in Al-Anon meetings can aid in the healing process and empower you as you navigate the complexities of having an alcoholic parent.

A Need For Control

Alcohol abuse within a family leads to dysfunction and conflict, negatively impacting all members. Parental substance use disorders can disrupt established attachments, routines, and communication, creating a chaotic environment. The presence of secrecy, loss, and fear results in an unstable family system that hinders healthy development and bonding for children. Taking steps to address alcoholism in the family early on can help foster a more stable and nurturing environment. Experts highly recommend working with a therapist, particularly one who specializes in trauma or substance use disorders. According to Peifer, a mental health professional can help you connect deep-rooted fears and wounds stemming from childhood to behaviors, responses, and patterns showing up in your adult life.

Alcoholic Parents: Understanding the Impact on Children and How to Seek Help

A person who is hypervigilant experiences an increased state of awareness that causes sensitivity to surroundings. This attentiveness can be excessive and may distract in work environments, family life, and other relationships. Knowing all the possible dangers is important to a hypervigilant person, even though these dangers may not be real. It is likely that hypervigilance stems from the shame and pain an individual experienced in their childhood with alcoholic parents. Because of this, children may have had to become aware of all potential dangers at a young age; this can turn into using.

How Growing Up With Alcoholic Parents Affects Children

Relatives, teachers and caregivers can help these children with educational programs, mental health resources and support groups like Alateen and Al-Anon. Encouraging alcoholic parents to receive substance use treatment for alcoholism can also help if done appropriately with a mental health professional’s support. These issues can take root physically or psychologically, and consequences can last through adulthood. In some cases, children of alcoholics even develop substance abuse issues themselves. The effects of exposure to a parent with alcoholism for daughters also vary based on whether it is the father or mother with AUD.

Helping an Alcoholic Parent Seek Treatment

A Finnish study found that in substance abuse treatment contexts children of substance-abusing parents are seldom met in person, and their needs are rarely considered [11]. In many countries there are not enough services focusing on these children, and the professionals meeting substance-using parents have not been trained to work with children [13]. Early intervention is an opportunity to offer support and keep a watching brief of children’s welfare, thus preventing problems from escalating [14]. It is also unclear whether the integrated approach of working with the whole family is more efficient than focusing on the children independently.

Because children are dependent on caregivers, their self-perception develops as a reflection of how they are viewed by caregivers and authority figures. An absent parent with an AUD may not provide their child with an accurate perception of themselves, https://ecosoberhouse.com/ which can cause life-long issues with self-image. Children of alcoholic households, even well after they’re grown, may struggle with confidence, social comparison, positive and/or negative feedback, boundaries, self-doubt, and accepting help.

Signs and Symptoms

Groups like Al-Anon and ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) provide free support and recovery. These may have been practical (like paying the bills) or emotional (like comforting your siblings when Mom and Dad fought). Now you continue to take responsibility for other people’s feelings or for problems how alcoholic parents affect their children that you didn’t cause. External messages that you’re bad, crazy, and unlovable become internalized. You’re incredibly hard on yourself and struggle to forgive or love yourself. During childhood, you came to believe that you’re fundamentally flawed, and the cause of the family dysfunction.

This means that disorders in children that are possibly related to parental alcohol abuse are not treated this early (when the child is aged 0–15) and thus do not come out in registers. These analyses were conducted for all categories of mental or behavioural disorders together. These analyses were conducted separately for maternal and paternal effects.

• Some children react to all the chaos and confusion by becoming hyper-responsible.
• This is perhaps because the daily care of children still tends to be seen as the mother’s main responsibility rather than the father’s, even if families differ in this.
• If they had a tumultuous upbringing, they may have little self-worth and low self-esteem and can develop deep feelings of inadequacy.
• A common phenomenon is known as “role reversal,” where the child feels responsible for the well-being of the parent instead of the other way around.
• Outpatient programs provide treatment for parents who can’t devote their time to 24-hour treatment.
• These “parentified” children often end up taking care of the alcoholic parent, the household, neglected siblings and themselves.

Papers marked with an asterisk (*) were included in the review