Jamie Browning

The Information Effect Project

My goal is to research how children specifically adult children are effected by their

parent or parents being alcoholics. I personally know how I was effected, but I want to put my

bias aside and look at it from a different view. One question that I have is that am I at a higher

chance for being an alcoholic because my mother is? And what are other effects that are possible

when you have an alcoholic parent?

First lets look at the risk of becoming an alcoholic if you have a parent that is one. There

is not a specific gene for alcoholism but there can be some genetic as well as environmental

factors that can contribute. The lack of the chemical endorphin in the brain is hereditary. For

those who don't know, endorphins are the feel-good chemicals that are released during "exercise,

excitement, love, and orgasms" according to BBC News. Those who lack this chemical in their

brains need some other way to feel good, so they might turn to alcohol because of this (Ford,

Paragraph 3). The next thing to take into consideration is environment, children that are raised in

a household that has an alcoholic parent are more likely to grow up in a household where there is

a lot of stress, lack of balance or discipline, and even abuse. Being in an environment with those

traits is often linked to risk taking behaviors such as use of drugs and alcoholic and delinquent

behavior.

Most experts estimate that 827% of all children, and 712% of children under 15

years of age have at least one parent with an alcohol problem ( SEREC, Paragraph 2)

Children that have an alcoholic parent have a higher risk of developing emotional, social, and

behavior problems, like depression and anxiety. There are also studies that show children of
alcoholics are less likely to live a healthy life style. Because of all the stressors that come with

having a parent that has a problem with alcohol things like physical activities, taking time to

make a healthy meal and being involved in your childs life seem to be put on the back burner in

most cases.

Many adult children of alcoholics may: Have to guess what normal is, judge themselves

without mercy, take themselves too seriously, have difficulty having fun, have trust issues,

become terrified of abandonment, become frightened of angry people, constantly seek approval,

can become super responsible (Buddy). What I have gathered in a lot of my research is that it is

hard to pin down exactly what the effects are because a lot of alcoholics dont come forward as

well as a lot of children that have experienced the trauma of having an alcoholic parent dont

want to talk about it. But any of the listed above symptoms can have drastic consequences on

forming healthy relationships in the future. Most of the time children of alcoholics dont even

realize that they have some of these behavior patterns.

There is a high trend in children of alcoholics to not only have emotional issues, but have

compulsive and addictive behaviors in other areas. Things like gambling have been known to be

a common problem with adult children of alcoholics. One adult child tendency is to "become

alcoholics, marry one, or both." If that is the case, many adult children will end up experiencing

serious problemseither with their own substance abuse or in their business or personal

relationships (Gold, Paragraph 6).

As you can see being a child of an alcoholic parent can have a ride range of

consequences, they seem to be all over the place with the potential of issues that can arise. The

best thing that any adult child of an alcoholic can do is be aware of these potential consequence

and behavior and stay educated.

 Work Cited

Erin Ford on October 5, 2011 6:35 PM, and Jenny Kim | October 16, 2011 8:12 PM | Reply. "Is

Alcoholism Genetic?" Is Alcoholism Genetic? - Science in Our World: Certainty & Controversy.

N.p., n.d. Web. 10 July 2017.

Buddy T | Reviewed by a Board-certified Physician. "Children of Addicted Parents Can Be

Profoundly Affected." Verywell. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 July 2017.

"Children of Alcoholics." Psych Central. N.p., 17 July 2016. Web. 10 July 2017.

SEREC, MAA, et al. "Health-Related Lifestyle, Physical and Mental Health in Children of

Alcoholic Parents." Drug & Alcohol Review, vol. 31, no. 7, Nov. 2012, pp. 861-870.

EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1465-3362.2012.00424.x.