AnvilheadII

One in five children in the UK are said to be negatively affected by their parents' drinking, and the effects can last well into adulthood. Four women - Karen, Liz, Hilary and Lynne - spoke to Jo Morris about growing up with a parent dependent on alcohol.

Link to full article: When mum or dad is an alcoholic - BBC News

quote: "When you're eight or nine you can't go anywhere," says Liz, who was bullied about her mum's drinking. "It's not your fault if your parent is alcoholic."

mylifeismine

This is great and I think there should be programs like
this in the US. It's sort of like - as a country even- we don't
talk about the elephant in the room.........

Kids voices/ experiences/perspectives growing up with
addiction .......their pain is real.

Maudcat

Great article. One of the things that resonated was that no one in the alcoholic families talked about it. Addiction thrives on secrecy.

wehav2day

I thought it was a good article. It's been many years, but I still question myself so often. Wasour feast or famine life because of my dad's up and down fisherman paychecks, or was the electricity cut off periodically (and only when dad was out of town) because of my mothers addiction? Welived in a great house, but we still sometimes ran out of food. "Potato weekend" really struck a chord with me.

Then I feel guilty for remembering the bad, because there were many genuinely good times too.

She died when i was 13, and my dad refused to ever talk to me about it. Anything. He blamed himself and couldn't face it, so he made me lie to everyone and say she had a heart attack. At 43.

I carried that secrecy and embarrassment into adulthood, and became an alcoholic myself. I was surrounded by good people in adulthood, yet still got sucked into the disease.

I'm so grateful for recovery teaching that sunlight is the best disinfectant. I'm glad this story is out there, and I hope there is more truth in the future.

aliciagr

Thanks Anvil. Im going to read more on the topic of how kids are affected.

NYCDoglvr

Thanks for posting. Kids are the real victims when active alcoholism is part of their childhood experience.

honeypig

Thanks for posting--I am always dumbfounded when someone here insists that their children are not being affected by growing up in an alcoholic household.