Antidepressants Blog

Where help can be given is to the family members who surround the addict or alcoholic. These are often suffering severely – financially, sometimes physically if they are being abused, always emotionally.

Children, in particular, are at risk in an alcoholic or drug-using home. It is not that their parents do not love them. It is simply that the chaos surrounding the alcoholic or addict affects their lives too. Their lives are, above all, emotionally chaotic. The alcoholic or addicted parent is one moment kind and caring, the next an angry, raving stranger. There is no emotional security in their lives. Physical and sometimes sexual abuse is quite common too. Fear is their constant companion.

It is important that children should be told about alcoholism and drug dependence. That way, they have some idea of why these things are happening in their home. Without this knowledge, many children believe that in some way they are to blame, and many make pathetic and frantic efforts to put things right. If they are told about the illness of chemical dependence, this will relieve them of the burden of misplaced responsibility and release them from some of their acute feelings of fear, guilt and sometimes anger.

The fellowships of Al-anon and Families Anonymous are quite crucial here. They can do a great deal to help the suffering families, whether or not the alcoholic or addict stops drinking or using drugs. Once again, a surprising number of helping professionals have never been to their meetings, and are in almost total ignorance of what they do and how they do it. Without seeing for themselves, they may – in the words of one marriage-guidance counsellor who had never bothered to investigate for himself – believe these are just ‘tea and coffee sessions’.

Both Al-anon and Families Anonymous offer specific suggestions which can give enormous help to the suffering families, who often bear the brunt of bad behaviour from the alcoholic or addict. There is also an organisation called Alateen for teenage children of alcoholics. Some

Al-anon meetings, known as AC A meetings, are for the adult children of alcoholics, to help them deal with the legacy of their disturbed childhoods.

Teachers and schools can play their part in educating people about drink and drugs. All the self-help groups we have mentioned will provide speakers who will help you understand the problem. Most children find this a great deal more interesting than lectures on the topic.

There is also literature available from the head offices of these organisations. Older teenagers should be encouraged to find out for themselves by going to an open meeting, as part of a school project. Literature, video films and speakers for conferences can also be provided.

Finally, schools need to remember that drug-taking and drinking start at a very young age nowadays. There are children as young as fourteen who are full members of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, whose drug-taking and drinking histories are appalling. Some of them started on drink or drugs as early as ten, eleven or twelve years old.

So some of the children attending our schools already have quite severe drug or alcohol problems. Like all addicts and alcoholics, they need help at the early stages, not at the later stages of the illness. And like all addicts and alcoholics, abstinence is the answer. The sooner this message reaches them, the better their chances of recovery.

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Anti-Smoking