Factors that Affect
How Children Experience Parental Substance Abuse.
· Severity of substance abuse – Is the parent a binge user? Continuous user? (Research shows the continuous user family showed more damage on children.)
· Drug of choice – How does this drug make the person act when using? Different? More aggressive? More passive? Each drug works differently on the body.
Children’s behavior will become in sync with both extremes of the rebound effect, the euphoria as well as the crashes, or the hangovers.
Children learn what behavior is appropriate and expected at different times in the parent’s rebound cycle. The child becomes responsive to the drug, not the
parent.
· Path to addiction — A parent who uses a drug such as alcohol is likely to take a long time to develop an addiction, in contrast to a parent who uses a drug such as crack cocaine. This means that the role changes for the child are affected by the addictive quality of the parent’s drug of choice.
· Illegal or legal drug – Is dealing part of the use? Legality is a major issue because it indicates social acceptance, thus, less shame involved.
Additionally, advertisements for alcohol make that acceptable. The portrait of alcohol use and its associated behaviors in advertisements is often in conflict with the child’s reality and so adds to greater confusion and difficulty with reality.
· Child’s perception of drug use – If drug use is perceived as a crisis, the child usually gets locked in. Some children can’t respond well in a crisis, others do.
· Parent’s gender and role – Girls with addicted fathers are more likely to marry an addicted person. Women that are addicted have a greater impact on children if they are the primary caregiver.
· Age of child when problem developed – How old was the child when the parent started using? Entered recovery? Died? When the addiction escalated? Research shows that younger children (aged 4 – 10) were more seriously affected than adolescents.
HOW CHILDREN OF SUBSTANCE ABUSERS FEEL
· Sad · Guilty
· Afraid · Embarrassed
· Lonely · Responsible
· Isolated · Confused
· Traumatized · Depressed
· Angry · Anxious
· Worried
HOW CHILDREN OF SUBSTANCE ABUSERS
BEHAVE
· Experiments with alcohol or drugs · Tries to control
· Has school problems · Physically aggressive
· Has social difficulties · Takes on adult responsibilities
· Runs away · Identifies with parent/ acts out
· Jokes a lot · Finds alternate family (gang)
· Withdraws · Difficult to play with
· Ignores it · Hypervigilant
· Stays out of the way · Doesn’t trust authority figures
· Steals · Doesn’t trust own perceptions
· Hoards · Psychosomatic health problems
· Tries to be perfect · Depressed and anxious
Click Here ncsacw.samhsa.gov/tutorials/exhibits/mod4exhibit12.pdf