That said, it’s important to recognize that behaviors resulting from this illness can have a negative impact on loved ones. Navigating relationships with parents can be difficult, especially if they are navigating their own complex situations like addiction. Shame is the feeling that youre bad or wrong and unworthy of love.

• Stigmatizing language, like this, can create a negative bias, perpetuate the view that addiction is a moral failing—and not a medical disease—and adversely impact treatment retention.
• Due to their past trauma, they can grow up with mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, and ADD/ADHD.
• Their unstable pasts can even inspire them to enter advocacy fields like social work, substance abuse counseling, or psychiatry, to help others who have faced similar challenges.
• “Not drinking and not attending parties where people are loud and obnoxious.
• The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry states that one in five adults in the U.S. grew up with an alcoholic family member at home.
• While many alcoholics are not violent, some are, and this behavior affects children significantly.
• Drinking alcohol has very little stigma and is often synonymous with social activities.

A parent’s alcohol use disorder (AUD) can have a major impact on your mental and emotional well-being — not just in your childhood, but also well into your adulthood. Growing up with a parent with alcohol use disorder has real-life consequences for many adult children. Even long https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/how-to-get-someone-into-rehab-guide-for-families/ after leaving your parent’s home, you could still be dealing with the aftermath of their alcohol addiction. As a result of trust issues or the lack of self-esteem, adult children of parents with AUD often struggle with romantic relationships or avoid getting close to others.

Impact a Father Addicted to Alcohol Has on a Child

It is common for children of alcoholics to grow up and develop substance abuse issues of their own, even while still school-aged. This may be due to how normalized drugs and alcohol are in their home or because the child views them as a coping mechanism for their home life. Children who grow up with alcoholic parents are four times more likely to develop a substance abuse problem than children who did not grow up in an alcoholic household. An alcohol use disorder (AUD) affects not only the user but can also affect the people in the user’s life. Because addiction is a family disorder, spouses, siblings, parents, and children also experience the consequences of an AUD.

Additionally, research shows that stigma can make alcohol use disorders worse and prevent people from seeking the help that they need.1 Alcohol use disorder is treatable, and individuals can and do recover from it. Because alcoholism can cause erratic behavior and unpredictable mood swings, children whose parents are heavy drinkers may experience neglect or abuse. They also witness maladaptive coping behaviors and grow up without learning how to regulate or process their own emotions. A negative self-image can also be the result of having alcoholic parents.

Academic and Cognitive Effects of Parents with AUDs

Adults who have parents with alcohol use disorder are often called “Adult Children of Alcoholics,” aka ACoAs or ACAs. In 2019, around 14.5 million people ages 12 and older in the United States were living with this condition, according to the how alcoholic parents affect their children National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Some of the adults living with this condition have children. Get professional help from an addiction and mental health counselor from BetterHelp via phone, video, or live-chat.