Author: Gary Jackson

Adult Children of Alcoholics: The Lasting Impact I Psych Central

Coping with the lasting effects of a parent’s alcohol use can be difficult, but you don’t have to do it alone. Children largely rely on their parents for guidance learning how to identify, express, and regulate emotions. But a parent with AUD may not have been able to offer the support you needed here, perhaps in part because they experienced emotional dysregulation themselves. You’re actually a highly sensitive person, but you’veshut down youremotions in order to cope. Addicts are often unpredictable, sometimes abusive, and always checked-out emotionally (and sometimes physically).

These children have a 95 percent chance of developing mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. They also are at high risk for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, substance abuse and suicide. Growing up with a parent living with alcohol use disorder can have negative effects on children, including mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, and behavioral problems, such as aggression. Experts highly recommend working with a therapist, particularly one who specializes in trauma or substance use disorders. According to Peifer, a mental health professional can help you connect deep-rooted fears and wounds stemming from childhood to behaviors, responses, and patterns showing up in your adult life.

How a Parent’s Alcohol Use Disorder Can Affect You as an Adult

It’s estimated that more than 28 million Americans are children of alcoholics, and nearly 11 million are under the age of 18. This is a huge lesson for many—for better or worse, addiction is outside of friends’ and family members’ control. But they can establish boundaries around the addiction and for the addicted loved one, and start to move forward in the healthiest way possible with a recovery of their own.

Once these two aspects of self—the inner parent and child—begin to work together, a person can discover a new wholeness within. The adult child in recovery can observe and respond to the conflict, emptiness and loneliness that stem from a parent’s substance abuse, and they can mourn the unchangeable past. They can own their truth, grieve their losses and become accountable for how they live their life today. And they can show themselves the love, patience and respect they deserve. According to a study by the National Association of Children of Alcoholics (NACOA), there are over 11 million children in the U.S. under the age of 18 living in families with at least one alcoholic parent.

Therapists are Standing By to Treat Your Depression, Anxiety or Other Mental Health Needs

Unfortunately, and for obvious reasons, children often don’t have access to these support groups while they’re still young. Even when a person grows up to become an adult child of an alcoholic, the meetings don’t necessarily focus on what it was like for a child to grow up alongside addiction and within a dysfunctional family. This was the question of a study conducted by Swedish researchers Anneli Silvén Hagströma and Ulla Forinder.

• Although people with AUD aren’t “bad” people (or “bad” parents), their alcohol use can create a home environment not suited for a child.
• Please visit adultchildren.org to learn more about the problem and solution, or to find an ACA meeting near you.
• With therapy and support, ACOAs can make changes in their life and treat the underlying PTSD and trauma.

If you’re an adult child and lived with a parent with alcohol use disorder, there are ways to manage any negative effects you’re experiencing. Although people with AUD aren’t “bad” people (or “bad” parents), their alcohol use can create a home environment not suited for a child. A 2021 study shows that parental alcohol abuse significantly increases the chance of having a dysfunctional family environment.