English 4 Honors Children of Alcoholics (COAS) “Children of alcoholics (COA’s) are considered to be at higher risk because there is a greater like hood that they will develop alcoholism compared with a randomly selected child from the same community.”(Children of substance Abuser: Overview of Research findings). Alcoholism is a serious disease in which people have an overwhelming desire for the mental and physical effects of drinking alcoholic beverages. Alcoholism and drug abuse runs in families and children of drug addicts and alcoholics are four times more likely than other children to become drug abusers or alcoholics themselves but you have the choice whether you want to drink or not. Alcoholism affects everyone that you are around but it affects children the more because they look up to their parents. Growing up in a household with an alcoholic or drug abuser is very traumatic for children. They will feel neglected and not loved by their parents. When children are raised in that type of environment, when they get older get older they will grow up knowing the environment they grew up in. Alcoholism and drug addiction can be a biological additive tragedy for generations to come. Alcohol affects a child as a whole; and if their parents are alcoholics then it will affect them even more. It will also affect a child educational environment. Children try to keep alcoholism a secret and start descending down a long path of destruction. They start slacking off in school and their behavior and attitude takes a turn for the worst. Therefore they are learning that their parents don’t care what they do therefore becoming alcoholics themselves. Alcoholism starts within the family and have a great toll on children. Children take it different than most kids. “Sons of alcoholics experience more of the physiological changes associated with pleasure effects compared with sons of non-alcoholics” (Children of Alcoholics: Important facts). Daughters of alcoholics cope by taking on the role as “parent” and do everything that their parents didn’t do for them. They will provide for their siblings and provide for more than parents. You never will know how alcoholism affects a child until you see their behavior changing.
One in five adult Americans have lived with an alcoholic relative while growing up. In general, these children are at greater risk for having emotional problems than children whose parents are not alcoholics. Alcoholism runs in families, and children of alcoholics are four times more likely than other children to become alcoholics themselves. Compounding the psychological impact of being raised by a parent who is suffering from alcohol abuse is the fact that most children of alcoholics have experienced some form of neglect or abuse. (Children of alcoholics) Children of alcoholics experience an environment of conflict, confusion, fear, rejection, denial, and real or possible violence. Children do just what their parents do; they record all the behaviors of their parents. They also try to control their parent’s problem by using what is known as the guilt trip. They say things like if you really love me then you would stop. As children they fail to realize that you cannot control or try to reason a disease. Daughters try to cure the disease by being the perfect child; by keeping picture-perfect grades, always being good, being accountable and trying to medicate the sickness. To people they go to school with they would never think that they had a problem at home with their parent being an alcoholic, from the outside they are perfect kids. They are perfect kids they just have an issue that needs to be dealt with in the household that they are trying to cover up. There are twenty million children living with parents of alcoholics. Children who become the class clown, making everyone laugh and all the while knowing, that life is not really that amusing. They deal with it by making others laugh so that when they go home
