Last night, I was lying in bed and heard this on the news:
Alcohol can affect a person’s health and also how they act. People who are drunk might be more aggressive or have mood swings. They may act in a way that is embarrassing to them or other people.
Although at the time, I thought this was hysterically funny. I soon after felt a little bad for her child and decided to use this story to bring up a serious topic about the effects of alcohol on children.
Lots of children live with a parent or caregiver who is an alcoholic or who drinks too much. Alcoholism has been around for centuries, yet no one has discovered an easy way to prevent it. Children of alcoholic parents may experience low self-esteem, loneliness, guilt, feelings of helplessness, fears of abandonment, and chronic depression. Often times they grow up to feel excessively self- conscious and develop a poor self-image; similar to that of their parent(s).
- 6.6 million American children under the age of 18 live in homes with at least one alcoholic parent.
- Approximately one in four children is exposed to family alcoholism, addiction, or alcohol abuse some time before the age of 18.
- Research indicates that children of alcoholic parents are at greater risk than other children of becoming alcoholics.
- 500,000 Americans who are dependent on alcohol are between the ages of 9 and 12.
As a result, it’s very important for every child, adolescent, and adult in our society to learn about alcoholism in order to avoid the damaging and debilitating consequences of this devastating disease.
This is very sad to read and all very true. This world is getting to point where everyone is either affected or is close to someone who deals with alcohol. Thanks for writing this blog.
I agree we must be aware what alcohol can do to a person when they drink to much. However, I don’t believe that means we need to avoid it altogether. We definitely need to be watching ourselves as we drink and know how much our body can handle. To go beyond what we can handle is more then just crazy, it’s wrong. It is endangering both our lives and the lives of those around us.
I am curious where you got the statistics. I was wondering about the last one: “500,000 Americans who are dependent on alcohol are between the ages of 9 and 12.” How are they dependent? Regarding effects, is it the kind of dependency as when you are on drugs, or when you drink coffee?
Here’s the website I got the stats from:
http://www.alcoholism-information.com/Alcoholism_Statistics.html
And it doesn’t specifically say how they are dependent, I am assuming it would be the type of dependency you would obtain from using drugs, but then again dependency is dependency whether you are talking about coffee or drugs. The point is that there are so many 9-12 year olds dependent on alcohol
When I seen the video you posted I started laughing, but as I read the stats about alcohol and families I was shocked.
Thats how I felt too! I was laughing about this for like an hour but when I decided to post it, i wanted it to pertain to something meaningful rather than just something to laugh about. Thanks for commenting!
I would have to agree with armandv5. I was on the phone with my friend when I read this and watched the video. We both started laughing histarically, then realized how effed up it really is. This is actually pretty sad if you really think about it.
I totally agree that we must be aware what alcohol can really do to a person when they get drunk. Most of the time it could change a person to totally different persona. Unfortunately, for most of the person that I know when the get drunk they get out of control and do a lot of stupid things. We should keep in mind as well that if you get drunk, you will lose a good sense judgment and star doing unnecessary things.
Wow that’s kind of crazy.I never heard of spraying breast milk on someone. That’s over the top. And your right alcohol does affect how a person acts. Most people I know tend to get turnt up, thinking their the baddest of them all. Turnt up meaning they have courage to do and say things they wouldnt normally do.