a) Babies born to addicted mothers tend to be premature and underweight and slow to develop.
b) Adolescent drug abusers act out, do poorly academically, and risk violence and disease.
c) Adult addicts have problems thinking clearly, remembering, and performing well socially and on the job.
d) Parents’ drug abuse makes for stress-filled homes and child abuse and neglect, harming the next generation.
It’s estimated that every alcoholic or addict directly affects the lives of at least four other people. The simple arithmetic says that if one parent is an addict, the other parent and the kids are emotionally damaged. It gets more complex: If your Dad’s boss is an alcoholic, he can make your Dad’s life miserable—and that can affect you. If Grandma was a “secret drinker,” she raised her children with some emotional weaknesses, which get passed to you because your mother missed out emotionally. This is one reason that addiction is called “a family disease”—and why understanding it matters to every family member.
It’s not just that kids with a family history of alcohol dependence have four times the risk of becoming alcoholics, but the roles that children must play in those families change the way they live their own lives. Knowledge can protect you from the side effects of such family situations. But you don’t have to literally live with them.
In your own home you may get the “do as I say and not as I do” order about substance use. The same goes for outside the home, too, where our society has very mixed feelings about the use of chemical substances. This only complicates an understanding of the facts. We see shows daily detailing family dysfunction and hear news every week about yet another famous name going to rehab or falling off the wagon. There are other ways that the media makes substance use matter to everyone. Reporting the dangers of drug use while commercials celebrate the use of alcohol sends mixed messages at best, and it’s tough for teens not to get sucked into the media hype that’s trying to make you the next big market for alcohol.
Nicotine is more strictly regulated than ever and can’t legally even be advertised let alone sold to minors—yet 65 percent of teens report smoking. Since it’s been shown that the younger people start drinking and smoking, the more likely they are to become chronic drinkers and smokers, it’s to the producers’ advantage to encourage young drinking and smoking. Corporate spokespeople will deny any such unattractive motivations, but their promotions continue to glamorize alcohol and cigarettes for the young.
However, the media also helps to open up some truths about addiction. By now, thanks to popular information in the news, on TV, and on the Internet, most people know that addiction has many faces. The addict can be a 12-year-old prep school student, a 35-year-old female teacher, or a 60-year-old homeless veteran. There is no set profile. This kind of knowledge can help you break through the denial that blocks people from getting treatment.
Science, psychology, biology, society, family, the media: The many and connected aspects of substance use disorders make them especially hard to live with. Substance use disorders are not simple diseases, so dealing with them, in oneself or in others, is not simple either. Understanding how these substances work is the first step toward learning to manage them.
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