Alcoholic Parents example essay topic

Helping Families of Alcoholics According to Alcohol And You, We live in a society that drinks heavily, and teens are influenced by this. (Claypool 15.) Living with an alcoholic basically means living with stress a great deal of the time. Alcoholism is a family disease that effects not just one person in the family but everyone. In ThePower Of Inclination", the wife's love for an alcoholic made her terrified and upset. Also, in You " ll Miss Me When I'm Gone alcohol affects the entire family, even though the alcoholic is only a teen. In The Glass of Absinthe two adults are drinking at a bar.

They go home drunk and affect their families. Thefictional literature on alcoholism was accurate in its portrayal of alcoholism as serious problem that affects many people. This report will be based on understanding the problem, how people are affected, and helping people cope. Initially, to help in understanding the problem, one must gain knowledge into why parents and teens drink in the first place.

An alcoholic is not simply someone who gets drunk once in a while, nor is an alcoholic necessarily a drunkard. Alcoholism is defined as a disease caused by an addiction to alcohol. (Curtis 11.) The drinking problem can cause serious problems that affect life, work, and health. This is shown in You " ll Miss Me When I'm Gone, when Marcus starts having a growing dependence on alcohol. His grades start suffering; he wrecks his new car; the school newspaper turns down his material, and his girlfriend objects to his growing dependence on alcohol. All of these serious problems are affecting Marcus's everyday life, due to alcohol.

The alcoholic is obsessive with alcohol and is not able to control the amount he / she drinks. This is shown in You " ll Miss Me When I'm Gone, when Marcus states inthe middle of the day, Putting the bottle in his book bag had saved his life more than once that day, (140). Alcoholics feel they need alcohol to save them. Instead o relying on people for help, they turn to alcohol. Marcus from You " llMiss Me When I'm Gone, had family problems which caused him to start drinking.

To get better, Marcus had to admit to his problem with alcohol and eventually reach for help instead of reaching for a drink. Most experts agree alcoholism can be controlled only by total sobriety. While alcoholism may involve physiological factors that make certain people more likely to become addicted, emotional factors are also involved. For example, self hatred is a common emotional factor in alcoholics. See, even my own son / daughter /brother / sister think I'm a jerk, and I probably am. Everyone hates me.

Id better have another drink / another hit to take my mind off it. (Claypool 23.) In the painting The Glass of Absinthe the man and woman are drinking. By their facial expressions and body language it was inferred to me thatthe man and women were drinking due to loneliness, unhappiness, despair or depression. The man or women could be a teenager's alcoholic parent who came to a restaurant or bar to drink away their problems. Many alcoholics group in alcoholic families. Drinking may be thought of as a way to lessen the pain of their childhood emotional scars.

In reality, drinking just adds to an alcoholic " problems. According to the book Alcohol and You, by Jane Claypool, Alcohol will make it difficult for a person to make judgments, concentrate, and to understand things", (69). The alcoholic, therefore, has much more that a drinking problem. He / she is in need of a great amount of help from a trained professional to quit drinking. From You " ll Miss Me When I'm Gone, Marcus was in great need of help. He was sneaking drinks from his parents bar, and a vodka bottle waste only thing that could get him through one horrible day to another.

This shows the fictional literature was accurate. When a parent is an alcoholic, each family member is affected. Many teens' lives are filled with uncertainty when their parents are alcoholics. But adult family members are affected, too. In the poem The Power Of Inclination the wife was uncertain.

Love is driving me crazy, (line 1). This quote shows the wife was uncertain about her love for her husband due to the fact that he was an alcoholic. Alcoholic parents often hesitate between extremes. (Curtis 16.) They can be loving and responsible when sober, but wildly violent and abusive when drunk. Teens love their alcoholic parent one moment but may resent them the next. Some days I just wished he were dead, says a speaker in Questions And Answers About Alcoholism (Curtis, 39).

In the poem The Power of Inclination, the wife says If the vets don't keep him this time, doctor, I'm going to find a way to kill him quickly, not piece by piece like he killed me, (23-27). Her reaction is comparable to the factual quote because it accurately reflects how desperate a family member of an alcoholic can be to getaway. It accurately shows that alcoholism can ruin lives. Often the effects of growing up in an alcoholic household do not become apparent for years.

Children of alcoholics either become alcoholics themselves or marry an alcoholic... one-half of the alcoholics in the United States had one or two parents who were alcoholics. (Claypool 99.) The environment from which a person matures is less crucial than the choices that individual makes in response to that environment. Even if things at home seem out of control, teens can take charge of their lives. In You " llMiss Me When I'm Gone, Marcus was having family problems. But instead of going to get help right away, he turned to alcohol, and his problems became worse. Although Marcus's parents weren't alcoholics, he still had problems which led him to his drinking.

In some cases, it is the parent who is the alcoholic, no tthe kid. For example It really scared me, and I started hiding in my closet so they wouldn't yell at me, said Melissa (Mclaughlin & Hayouri, 18). Melissa was very upset, I stayed away as much as possible. It was the only way I knew to survive, she admitted (Mclaughlin & Hayouri 19). This fact was also shown inthe poem The Power Of Inclination". In this case a wife will do anything to get out of a bad situation with alcohol, even if she must resort to killing her husband.

Teachers can help teens by teaching them not to feel responsible for their parents drinking and by helping teens to understand that itis the parents, and the parents alone, who are responsible for their own alcoholism. Teachers can help teens to understand that teens cannot cure their parents without help from a trained professional. Teens need to know that ranting, crying and arguing with a parent accomplishes little. If the wife in ThePower Of Inclination would have followed these steps, she probably wouldn " have had to come to a deadly conclusion. She even thinks about killing her husband because alcohol ruined their relationship. Teens and adults with alcohol-related problems need to acknowledge their feelings.

Some youths feel guilty because they sometimes resent their alcoholic parent. But it is normal to feel this way, especially if a parent's drinking prevents him or her from providing the care and support the children need. Teens need to focus their hatred on the alcoholism instead of the parent. (Grossahandler 68.) This is the same for all people in an alcohol-related circumstance. In conclusion, alcoholism is an addiction that hurts many families across the nation. The solutions are often difficult, and healing takes time.

Thefictional and factual literature on alcoholism was accurate in its portrayal of alcoholism as a serious problem that affects many people. But hopefully, with time and dedication there will be hope for those families who suffer with the disease.