Why It’s Important to Protect Your Child if Your Spouse is an Alcoholic Why It’s Important to Protect Your Child if Your Spouse is an Alcoholic Why It’s Important to Protect Your Child if Your Spouse is an Alcoholic Michele Hart Law

Date: October 23, 2020 | Author: Michele Hart

Scary statistics show that alcoholism affects about 18 million adults in the U.S. and 6.6 million children younger than 18 years old live in households with at least one alcoholic parent.  This post identifies how your kids might be affected by having an alcoholic parent.  Because when you know the risks, you can take the right action for your family.

For young children, growing up in a household with an alcoholic can shape the rest of their lives.  Sadly, they often have to grow up quickly and take on adult roles and caretaker responsibilities.  Children of alcoholics can also eventually develop substance abuse issues themselves.

Having an alcoholic parent can seriously affect children psychologically, emotionally, and biologically. Children of alcoholics often experience difficult and painful emotions that can lead to increased risk for anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, isolation, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Specifically, the child might blame himself or herself for the parent’s drinking, for example, if they behaved better.  Likewise, the child can feel very alone when the parent drinks.  Dark thoughts and emotions can seep in and spiral into depression when the child feels like no one cares or understands.

The instability of not knowing how bad it might be on any given day can cause a child to become extremely distrustful, insecure, and to suppress their own emotions.  When children become unable to express – or even recognize – their own needs, they are likely to experience difficulty with interpersonal relationships as they get older.

It can be very confusing and difficult for kids in alcoholic households to lack daily routine, an important aspect of child development.  For example, it’s not unusual for an alcoholic parent to have mood swings where they are loving to the child one minute and loudly shouting the next.

Growing up experiencing chronic stress of a chaotic and unpredictable household with an alcoholic parent, can actually alter the structure and function of the child’s brain and change the way the child’s body responds to stress.  It’s important to know, however, that you have options when it comes to helping your kids.

For more information or to find out your legal options (with or without divorce) when your spouse is an alcoholic, please call or click here for help.

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