Children of parents with alcoholism are at risk of experiencing mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, and drug or alcohol abuse. Children of parents with an addiction to alcohol can feel uncertain, unstable, neglected, disorganized, and lonely. Bottom line: growing up in an alcoholic home is growing up in a home of chaos.
Children can feel guilty and think that their parents drink because of them, mostly due to the parent blaming the child for every problem imaginable. Alcohol changes the way a parent behaves and causes aggressive, abusive, or often violent behavior, especially toward the child. Alcoholism affects the way a person's brain functions and can lead to brain damage, stroke, overdose, and death- resulting in conflicting feelings for the child. For example, a child may feel an unfillable void due to the loss of their parent. On the other hand, a child may feel great relief that a source of pain in their life is gone. A parent with an addiction to alcohol causes childhood trauma, affects a child's development, and destroys family relationships.
When a child has an alcoholic parent, they often do not get the attention they need. Growing up in an unstable household, commonly inspires trust issues and behavioral problems for children, which can result in substance abuse issues of their own and eventually will need adolescent alcohol abuse treatment programs. Children of parents with an addiction to alcohol are at high risk of developing an addiction to substances in adolescence or adulthood.
Teens are influenced by peer pressure and often act on impulse. A teenager is more likely to become addicted to drugs or alcohol when they have a parent with an addiction to substances. A teen's brain develops at a high rate, but when addicted to drugs or alcohol, the brain's development slows down or stops. Early intervention and treatment can help repair the damaged brain while building new, positive neural pathways for recovery.
Treatment is available for adolescents and teenagers who have developed an addiction to alcohol or other substances in their early life. When a child goes to treatment, the whole family has an opportunity to change. Stonewater Adolescent Recovery Center offers adolescent and teenage boys a long term residential treatment program for addictions, complete with academic support. Created by a family for other families, our programs offer innovative, cutting edge treatments for the developing brain. For information on our foundation building, life cleansing programs, call us today: 662-598-4214
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