How Alcohol and Drug Abuse Affects Family Dynamics - Term Paper Example

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Effects to the Family Introduction Alcohol and substance abuse effects have always been a problem to an individual abuser, thefamily and the wider society. Though the alcoholic or the drug addict suffers diverse effects alone, the majority of substance abusers live in family settings. Therefore, it is important to look at the incidence and the occurrence of substance abuse in relation to the family. The reason substance abuse has to be accessed in terms of its effects to the family is because the family plays a crucial role in affecting the use of alcohol and other drugs, the intensity of drug use, and the choice of the substances. Deciding to use a particular drug or alcohol to some extent depends on an individual’s relationship with their family. In addition, the family coping mechanism, and other family members’ abuse to substances can influence an individual to use the drugs. Further, the extent to which the family proves to be protective against substance abuse also influences substance abuse. In family contexts where alcohol and other drugs are not allowed, the family members including the adolescents are less likely to engage in substance abuse. Other effects of drug abuse to the family can be associated with child abuse and domestic violence. Substance abuse is also the leading contributor to marital dissatisfaction, family break ups, and rejection of family members Importance of family in relation to the treatment of drug addicts The family is an important institution that greatly contributes to the aid of addicted members. The family always helps the addicted drug victims to access treatment, maintaining their family participation, and reducing negative impact and harm to family including children. The problem is that many addiction services remain focused on an individual substance abuser while the family members and other support networks are not given adequate treatment (Shulamith and Fewell, 2006). Substance abuse in families often lead to such problems as mental illness, domestic violence, economic difficulties, unrealistic expectations of children, isolation, child abuse, neglect, and poor parenting skills. In families where the parents are substance abusers, children are likely to be involved in abuse and mistreatment by the parents. Increased child abuse may result when the parent is affected by the abuse disorder that affects their reasoning and often lead to irrational decisions when dealing with the children. Parent addiction often leads to excessive beating that causes physical injuries to the children as well as spouses. Other causes of child abuse can be attributed to substance abuse effects such as parental stress and low frustration tolerance (Delva, 2000). Effects of alcohol and drug addiction on family relations and dynamics Alcohol and substance abuse can cause tension among children, particularly when they are trying to understand the temperament of their parents after abusing substance. Possible social humiliation and shame can also be caused to the children when they realize that the behavior of their addicted parents is already out in the public; the children may experience socialization disorders. Other emotional impacts to children include anger, anxiety, or fear about their parents and what will happen to them when law enforcement agencies catch up with them. Children who grow up in families that are affected by drug abuse often learn role expectations that impair their relationships later in life. The children often have unrealistic expectations of themselves, difficulty with accepting authority and problems with intimacy, and emotional balance in their adulthood. It is also evident that parental substance abuse and attitudes towards drug usage in families are the major social problems affecting adolescents. At this stage (adolescent) children need thorough guidance from their parents. Lack of proper guidance: leads to consequent drug abuse and adoption of other antisocial behaviors such as being a gangster. In families where the parents are non abusers of substances, children are less likely to be involved in substance abuse (Shulamith and Fewell, 2006). The family should offer favorable environment that provides for the successful development and protection of its members. This reflects a secure, cohesive, and mutually supportive family environment; one that is characterized by appropriate roles, effective communication, and regular expression of positive effect, and one that is based o a shared set of cultural norms and values. Family members must be emotionally involved with each other and able to influence each other’s behavior as it relates to the success of the family. Children of alcoholic parents may be forced to take on parenting and adult responsibilities that may prevent them from engaging in age appropriate activities or peer socialization experiences. Various conflicts such as parent to adolescent conflict can be attributed with youth involvement with alcohol and other drugs. The youth often undermine the responsibility given to them by their parents. This leads to indiscipline and results to cases where the youth resort to violence against their parents. On the contrary, Positive parental relations including parental affection and support can prevent the youth from engaging in substance abuse. The effects of parental substance abuse do not end once the children grow up. Children of alcoholic parents may show behavioral, psychological and brain effects in their adulthood. Substance abuse also affects pregnancy. Substance abuse has diverse effects to the developing fetus in the woman’s womb especially if the woman is a substance abuser. Alcohol and substance abuse are the eminent and preventable cause of mental retardation and development disabilities to children across the world. The family should be viewed as a unit system. Any changes in any part (any family member) affects al others. Substance abuse leads to stress in the family. This makes the family members to look for ways of dealing with the stressful situation in the family. Stress in the family may lead to family break ups and divorce which then forces the children ton grow up with a single parent. Growing up with a single parent can cause social problems since the children may lack mother or father relationships while growing up. This may affect their marriages once they grow up. Alcohol and substance abuse affects the economic stability of the family. In cases where the bread winner is involve in the abuse of highly addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin, the larger part of the income is always spend in buying of the drugs. As a result, the family may not be able to afford such basic amenities as health services, education, food and clean water. Addiction of the bread winner leads to desperate situations where the children opt to drop out of school so as to find meaningful employment, able to cater for the family members. Economic effects of drug abuse to the family are diverse. In addition, the require income for family savings and investments are always spent in looking for healthy services whenever the parent contracts serious diseases such as cancer (Shulamith and Fewell, 2006). Substance abuse leads to poor judgments on the part of the abuser. If both the parents engage in substance abuse, they may be faced with judgment challenges whenever there is a common agreement to be reached at for the common good of the family. Disagreements often result which then lead to domestic violence and family separation. In addition poor judgments often lead to in appropriate decisions of how to use family income and children’s education needs. The children may opt to drop out of school since their parent cannot make rational decisions on their education. Further, substance abuse and the consequent irrational thinking behavior may lead to other antisocial behavior such as prostitution. Either of the parents might decide to remain unfaithful to the other. The result is that sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS may be contracted by the drug abuser. HIV/AIDS may lead to death of both parents or lead to directing most of the family income in looking for appropriate treatment of the disease. Since there is no cure of the disease, the affected person might be forced to take antiretroviral drugs that slow down the effects of the disease. Addictive substances such as tobacco, alcohol and solvents have several characteristics in common. These drugs alter the function of the human brain and have impact on behavior. They are widely used around the globe and they burden society by increasing social and economic costs for productive enterprises and by drawing upon limited government services. The most widely used addictive substances, alcohol and tobacco, are harmful with extensive damage to the individual, family and the community. Drug abuse on adolescents may cause the parents and the whole family a lot of problems. The parents may be face with problems of trying to correct the behavior of their children while at the same time trying to work for the basic needs of their children. Due to drug abuse, adolescents can be involved in such criminal activities such as theft, murder and rape. All these will require the parents guidance and counseling since most parents do not spent much time with their children, the y are either influenced to abuse the drugs with their peers or influence by other means. Further, the criminal nature of their actions will force the law enforcement agencies to take action. The adolescents may be faced with law suits against their behavior. Parent involvement I terms of finance and counseling may affect their productivity at work and even cause stressful situations; stress has been linked to be a major cause of heart attacks (Shulamith and Fewell, 2006). Stressful situations caused to parents by the nature of their children’s criminality may lead to heart failures and eventual death. Death of the parent will automatically have an effect to both substance abusing adolescents and other members. In most cases, when there is death of family br4ead winner, economic challenges often affect the children’s education, food, housing, health and clean water. Other close relatives may be forced to provide for the orphaned children; this will automatically strain their income since they have to provide for unexpected eventualities. Death of the parent due to diseases attributed to substance abuse may cause desperate situation to the children. It may lead to adoptions of children by other members of the society. However, adoption may not be the best solution to orphaned children since most adopted children experience mistreatments by their care takers. Mistreatments on the part of the children may lead to physical injuries, and adoption of antisocial behaviors. Other factors that may arise in the course of adoption may include child labor, early forced marriages, sexual harassment and even teenage pregnancies (Delva, 2000). Substance abuse, both in the family and society, leads to insecurity. Substance abusers are more likely to be involved in irrational thinking while making correct choices in their lives. The substance abusers often engage in theft, and murder of both member of the society and family. Theft fleeces the family of its economic investments. In most cases, property destruction might also arise due to drug abuse. Cases of murder where some members of the society shoot their fellow members with guns can be attributed to mental illness which is an effect of substance abuse. Insecurity is a great threat both to the family economy and to the nation’s economy. Poor grades in schools are as a result of substance abuse. School going children who abuse drugs are at high risk of dropping out of school. Low level of commitment to education and higher indiscipline cases appear to be related to substance abuse among teenagers in schools. Behavioral problems experienced during drug abuse may interfere with academic performance. Lack of education to the children affects the economic stability of a family. The children are able to get quality education to enable them get good employment to ensure economic stability in their adulthood. This leads to high levels of poverty, both at the family and national level. The ultimate effect will be high number of illiterate and poor citizens who cannot be relied on in terms of economic progression (Delva, 2000). While drunk or has abused drugs, member of the family are often prone to injuries due to accidents. Accidents may cause physical disabilities that may for members of the family to devote most of their time in caring for the disabled member. Substance abuse by the youth also leads to death through suicide, homicide, accident and illness. Care to a disabled member of the family affects both psychological as well as economic aspects of the members of the family. On the issue of role model, substance abuse by the youth set bad examples to their siblings who might copy their destructive behavior. The youth, after abusing drugs, often become hostile and destructive; they do not take parental advice and their decision making is often impaired. Drug abuse on the youth should not be tolerated at all by their parents. Parents should seek for solutions to help them solve youth substance abuse. If left uncared, the youth might be hostile and harmful to the members of the family. Behavior patterns of drug addicts can affect their families. The family can choose to hide the situation from other people such as visitors and the public. They often avoids discussing the problem of one of their member with the addicts employer and even their peers. This often creates a misguided idea that the family alone can cure the addict. In marriages, when one partner is addicted to substance abuse, their spouses often feel responsible for the problem and the pain the partner is receiving from drugs. They therefore remain with the responsibility of taking care and supporting their spouses by covering for them, lying and affecting their work schedules so as to deal with the drug abuser (Delva, 2000). Substance abuse on children makes the parents experience the feeling of guilt. Guilt is often associated with the fact that parents are solely responsible for the behavior of their children because the child had placed himself if a risky behavior. The parents also experience the guilt and regretting that they should have known or could have stopped the behavior exhibited by their child. Children are the worst affected group when parents are abusing drugs. This situation can make the child view himself as being totally different from their peers. Feeling different from your peers seems light, but it can actually lead ti depression; depression is more dangerous than drugs. Children from drug abusing parents cannot even take their friends to their homes because of the fear that their parents might victimize them. Children need to socialize; situations that prevent socialization are harmful to the health as well as growth process of the children. Most spouses attempt to get their alcohol abusing partners to reduce their drinking through aversive techniques such as nagging, complaining and threatening. These efforts are typically implemented on an occasional or unsystematic basis and generally are not effective. They result in negative abuser relations and increase of existing marital conflict and disagreement. These negative consequences may serve to increase the problem, resulting in the abuser leaving home to drink or imbibe secretly (Delva, 2000). Indiscipline is also attributed to parental substance abuse. Most parents spent a lot of time under drug influence; they therefore do not get enough time to be with their children so as to monitor their behavior. Children under these families often lack guidance on the correct form of behavior to follow. They resort to their role models in the society, who might be exhibiting negative behaviors that should not be copied. Finally, the family environments of drug using parents are frequently characterized as being chaotic with frequent resistance to changes, minimal contact with fathers, and severe shortages of financial resources for the basic necessities and needs of the children. Often, social support is also limited or nonexistent due to the disorganization and instability of drug abusing families. Trends in Substance Abuse According to Grant and Dawson in their 1997 study, they found out that more than 40% of alcoholics had started drinking before they could reach the age of 14 years. This group has developed a dependence on alcohol: they are addicted to it. In contrast, the study also shows that about 10% of those who started drinking at the age of 20 years or older developed substance and alcohol abuse dependence. Further, those who began substance abuse at an early stage have more drug related problems in their lives (Bridget and Dawson, 1997). In another study conducted by Kandel and Yamaguchi in 1993, the two scholars found out that teenagers who had access to hard drugs, such as cocaine, had actually began abusing drugs such as cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana. The teenagers who had access to hard drugs had started two years earlier than their counterparts, who had no access to hard drugs. The majority of smokers, approximately 90%, began smoking before the age of nineteen (Kandel, Denise and Yamaguchi, 1993). According to Lloyd, O’Malley and Bachman w ho tracked substance abuse among American eighth, tenth and twelfth grade students; they found out that the use of illicit drugs was at its highest rate in the 1970s. The trend decreased up to 1990s when it started to increase, and then settling to a slight decline at the end of the decade. During this period, marijuana was the most use illicit drug. Further, the study also shows that in the year 2000, about 54% of American high school senior students had used an illicit drug in their life. The tenth grade student’s had a prevalence of 46% while eighth grade students had a prevalence of 27%. In the same year (2000), one quarter of twelfth grade students had used illicit drugs in the previous month; tenth grade students had 23% while eighth grade students had 12% (Llyod, O’Malley and Bachman, 1999). On alcohol abuse, Lloyd, O’Malley and Bachman, state that alcohol use was in steady rise from 1970s, reaching the highest level at end of the decade. There was a decrease in alcohol consumption in the 1980s while consumption rate remained fairly stable in 1990s. They also found out that alcohol consumption among twelfth grade students was at 80% in the year 2000 who had reported using alcohol at least once. 62% were reported to have been drunk at least once. Further, 71% of tenth grade students had tasted alcohol, 49% had been drunk at least in one occasion while the data on eighth grade students stood at 52%, 25% having been drunk at least once. On overall alcohol abuse, one half of high school senior’s hat started drinking alcohol in the previous thirty years. The prevalence rate of alcohol abuse in previous thirty years stood at 41% in tenth grade students, and 22% in eighth grade students (Llyod, O’Malley and Bachman, 1999). On cigarette smoking, Lloyd, O’Malley and Bachman, found that cigarette use was at its highest level in the mid 1970s after which the rate decline for few years. Cigarette smoking rate remained relatively stable in mid 1980s and early 1990s. There was an increase in cigarette smoking in the mid 1990s; however there was a slight decrease in the smoking rate of eighth and tenth graders in the last few years before the end of the century. In the year 2000, over half of tenth and twelfth grade students had used cigarettes in their lives, that is, 63% to twelfth grade students, 41% eighth grade students and 55% to tenth grade students (Llyod, O’Malley and Bachman, 1999). To prevent the high increase in drug abuse among school going children, supply of the drugs to the youth has to be terminated. The government should increase border patrols, confiscate drug shipments and put grave penalties to the drug peddlers. On the alcohol and tobacco abuse, the government can effectively reduce their consumption by increasing taxes, increasing the legal age of use, law enforcement and reducing the number of sale outlets. In addition, the government should impose charges to individuals who sell drugs to the minors. According to National Institute on Drug abuse, the latest findings on substance abuse prevalence have shown decline. On eighth grade students, there was reported decline in the use of illicit drugs fro 20 % to 19% between 2006 and 2007. Cigarette smoking was also found to be declining. The prevalence rate on cigarette smoking had fallen to the lowest rate in the survey’s history. Further, there was a decrease in the use marijuana. Eighth grade students reported a decline from 11% to 10.3%, both in 2006 and 2007 respectively. In the period between 2001 and 2007, there was a decrease in marijuana use by 25% eighth and twelfth grade students. Unless the society, together with the government embarks on serious drug eradication measure, the future of drug abuse on teenagers is expected to rise. The government must know that an effective method to reducing drug prevalence rate is by investing in the youth and providing them with accurate information concerning the dangers, sources, and types of drugs they are bound to come across. Controlling substance abuse in the future will require a combined effort from organizations, society and individuals. There should be established drug courts to help in the rehabilitation. Drug courts should be able to combine together elements of the criminal justice system and substance abuse treatment services. In addition, drug courts should be aimed at targeting offenders with diagnosable substance abuse disorders. Drug courts will be useful in dealing with drug availability by arresting drug peddlers and consequently prosecuting them Conclusion The most effective method of preventing substance abuse is through education. In addition to educational institutions, other settings are important for the contributions they make to learning and socialization. Homes, workplace and religious institutions are the settings for the education of young and the old alike. There should be a full integration of drug abuse education into mainstream institutions, whether public and private, religious or secular. Controlling substance abuse is of more importance than passing more drug laws and mandating counseling. Drug effects to the family are diverse, ranging from social to economic effects. There is need for the government to educate the youth of school going age on the dangers of drugs. Addicted teenagers as well as parents should be put in rehabilitation facilities for them to return to their normal lives. Substance abuse in tha family, if not prevented, will cause severe effects to the children who are the most vulnerable group in the family. In addition, laws should be put in place to punish drug peddlers as well as alcohol dealers who sell alcohol to underage individuals. Family members should be included in the treatment process of adolescents with drug and alcohol problems. Adolescents usually live with their parents, and it is often at the parents’ wish that the adolescent comes to treatment in the first place. Further, despite growing independence, adolescents are both emotionally and financially dependent on their parents. Parents therefore play an important role in adolescents’ lives and have much to offer as part of substance abuse treatment. References Delva, J (2000). Substance abuse issues among families in diverse populations. London, Routledge. Pp 79-85. Grant, Bridget F., and Dawson, D. "Age at Onset of Alcohol Use and Its Association with DSM-IV Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: Results from the National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey." Journal of Substance Abuse 9 (1997):103-110. Johnston, Lloyd D., OMalley, P and Jerald G. Bachman. Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-1999, Vol. 1: Secondary Students. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1999. Kandel, Denise B., and Yamaguchi, K. "From Beer to Crack:Developmental Patterns of Drug Involvement." American Journal of Public Health 83 (1993):851-855. Shulamith, L and Fewell, C (2006). Impact of substance abuse on children and families: research and implications. London, Routledge. Pp 1-6. Read More