Financial effects on families. Substance abuse affects caregivers income dramatically. Useally the income of mother or father is used for drugs and alcohol and including the money for food and clothing for the children. Once the incomes gone, and it gets really bad substance abusers result to selling things, or themselves for money to drugs or alcohol. \n\n
Fetal exposure to alcohol and other drugs. Substance abuse during pregnancy is extrmely ad for development. drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy in most cases lead to mental retardation, behavioral problems and poor performance in school. \n
Early family environment. Drug and alcohol abuse can definitly affect the early social environment of children. A high percentage of children today growup with substance abusing parents. Some research shows that children that grow up in these families go through physical, medical, and emotional neglect.\n
Child and adolescent problems. Children with family histories of substance abuse differs from children without the history of substance abuse. Children who grow up with substance abusing parents often have higher levels of aggression, hyperactivity, their impulsive, and they often are neglected. Being neglected as a child causes depression, desire to be no body in life.\n
Partner and family violence. Married and cohabiting couples share similar drinking patterns and when they are abusing substances together it tends to cause relationship problems like arguments, yelling and screaming, and physical violence. Growing up in these kind of family could be hard, especially for the younger ones. Growing up and never seeing happiness goes back to depression, no motivation to do anything or be anybody. \n
Many family members start to experience intoxicant emotions. They start to feel shame, guilt, resentment, self-pity, worry, and anger. These emotions become stronger and stronger. Useally these emotions come from a daughter, son, husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend of the substance abuser. It becomes so strong to the point where their embarrassed. They tend to hide, be secretive, depression, and lack of sleep.\n
An addicts emotions are very similar to a family members emotions. An alcoholic or drug addict feels the same emotions an addicts family member feels as if they are using or coming off of their drug of choice. A substance abusers emotions are useally unpredictable, sudden depression, anxiety, lack of sleep. Everything is more sudden, more changing when your the actual abuser.\n
Family members follow the same cycle as an alcoholic or addict. There’s different stages the family goes through before the addict hits rock bottom or enters into recovery. A family starts with a concern, family members dont really know what their about to live, and are constantly hoping for the best, without knowing the worse.\n
Another stage a family member goes through is the defense stage, when the family is trying to push the reality of the situation away. They start to go in and out of denial, where as addicts go through a blackout stage which is similar to the defense stage, when they start to lose memory of events.\n
During the denial stage, families are preoccupied with the addicts behavior. They begin to lie to protect their family members behavior. As they start to tolerate the addicts behavior they start feeling responsible for thier family’s problems.\n
Familys start realizing the reality of the situation, and start to adapt. During this phase family members find themselves actually changing their own person, into someone else in order to fix the addict or alcoholic. Sometimes they may even start to use drugs and alcohol themselves.\n
Many family members attempt to actually change themselves for the addict or alcoholic in their family. They start becoming the perfect person hoping it will help or make the addict/alcoholic happy. Family members do this in hopes that the addict will stop abusing drugs or alcohol. They both begin feeling like their losing thier minds, feeling like failures, and need physical and mental help. They often realize that they are starting to lose control. \n\n\n
Exhaustion Phase, this is when family members start to defend their use of emotions. This relates to the drug addict because addicts defend their use of drugs, and useally have a blame, or blame someone. They start to lose their minds, and experience depression and anxiety. Addicts or alcoholics make excuses, and are starting to reach their “rock bottom”.\n
When addicts admit they have a problem, is their first step to recovery. As for addicts admitting they have a problem, family’s must do it as well. When addicts or alcoholics reach their rock bottom, so does the family. Family’s must admit the problem, and start to recover, they finally start to face reality. Once the family and addict realize life cannot go as a secret, and can no longer go on the way it is, recovery process starts. \n
Recovery has no end. The stages of recovery keep going and never ends. Recovery is a lifelong process, they must monitor themselves, feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and relationships of their family members. Going to meetings, keeping up with books, reading about addiction, and learning themselves will keep them on the long road to recovery. \n
