Alcoholism and the Family and Drug Addiction and the Family:
Discover the
Answers and Help you Need
The Effects of Alcoholism and the Family and the Impact of Drug Addiction and the Family
are devastating.
I know ... my mother was an alcoholic for a large number of my childhood and early adult
years.
The earliest memories I have of the effects her alcoholism had on the family was when I was 3 or 4 and I'd go
lie in my older sister's room with her because you could hear my parents shouting and screaming at each other
in the kitchen because of my Mom's drinking.
And so alcoholism in the family was something I just got used to from a very young age.
Soon I could tell immediately when she'd had a drink. She didn't even need to be drunk yet.
Just one drink, and I knew. There would be this look on her face that I immediately recognised.
My heart would sink because I knew what lay in store ...
She never got abusive or behaved horribly when she was drunk ...
She'd either go lock herself in her room where she'd eventually pass out. Or I'd sit and listen to her and let
her unload about how difficult her life had been, how she never really felt appreciated in her relationship with
my Dad, or whatever else the reason for the day was ... and I'd feel sorry, helpless, and I guess also guilty
because I never really knew what to do.
Eventually it just became 'normal.'
After her binge of what would usually last a few days - she'd manage to get herself 'together' again for
a while, until the next binge, when the cycle would start again.
Then occassionally her binge would be so bad, that she'd end up in hospital. That would scare her sufficiently
to make the usual promises that that this was the last and that she'd never touch a drink again. And then she'd
stay sober for longer than usual.
Initially I was naieve and stupid enough to believe her promises ...
Soon I wisened up, and knew her sobriety would be short-lived and that before long it was inevitable that
she'd hit the bottle again.
Once I left home it became easier to deal with because I could just ignore the problem and wouldn't have
to deal with it on a daily basis anymore. But I always thought that there must be something one can do - but I
suppose that after a while you become indifferent and almost stop caring because it hurts too much when you do.
Only once I went through Rehab for my own addictions, did I understand enough about alcoholism and addiction to
realise that we as a family were actually enabling her behaviour.
And so after another one of her episodes where she landed up in hospital, I realised it was time to get tough
and that's when me and my sister performed an intervention on her, which led to her going to Rehab for the
first time - and I'm grateful to say that she's been sober ever since, which is going on 4 years now.
Alcoholism and the Family and Drug Addiction and the Family:
Topics that We'll
be Discussing ...
So this section is all about Alcoholism and the Family and Drug Addiction and the Family - and helping
you understand your role in all of this as well as what you need to do to help.
So we'll start by looking at codependency and what that means and the impact you have on the addict
in your life ...
Then we'll move onto discussing an intervention - what it is, how to do one and the end result you're trying to
achieve
And we'll finish off by looking at the effects of alcoholism on children
