Alcoholism affects everyone around you, especially your children. If you are concerned you could be an alcoholic, you may feel too afraid to seek help if you have children. This is understandable, especially if you don’t think your drinking has a negative effect. Yet the reality is children of alcoholic parents often have many issues when they grow up.
Children naturally want to emulate the behaviour of their caregivers, parents and guardians. When they see you drinking and if they see you drunk, this normalises that behaviour. One of the consequences of a parent with alcohol use disorder is that your children are more likely to have problems with alcohol when they grow up.
Mental Health Issues in Children With Alcoholic Parents
As a parent, you may not even realise how much children are affected by alcoholic parents. Although children can be affected differently, several well-researched issues occur more often in children and adults who grew up dealing with an alcoholic parent.
Children need stability, and this is often lacking in families with parents or guardians who have an alcohol use disorder. The result is that children and adults who grew up watching a parent or guardian who could not control their drinking may struggle with mental health disorders such as:
- Eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia and binge eating.
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Low self-esteem
- Anger issues
- Control problems and hypervigilance
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in adults
- Difficulty forming interpersonal relationships.
How Do I Know if I Drink Too Much?
Drinking alcohol is an accepted part of adult life and socialising. So how do you know if you have a problem with alcohol addiction? Here are 11 signs you might be an alcoholic:
- You get drunk when you go out, and you didn’t want to
- You need to drink more alcohol before it has an effect
- You are always thinking about when you can have your next drink
- You spend your free time drinking
- You avoid responsibilities such as taking your children to school
- You don’t want to take part in activities, such as playing sport that you used to enjoy
- You avoid spending time with family and friends so that you can drink alcohol
- You have withdrawal symptoms, such as morning tremors, nausea and excessive sweating
- You can’t remember periods when you were drinking
- You have memory problems
- You wake up with injuries but don’t know how you got them.
Should I Go to Alcohol Rehab?
If you recognise three or more of the signs above, you will likely have a problem with alcohol addiction. Accepting you are an alcoholic is hard. You may feel ashamed and angry with yourself. At Step by Step Recovery, we believe you and your children deserve support and help.
Alcohol rehab is the most effective way to end alcohol addiction for good. There are different types of rehab for alcohol, and depending on how severe your alcohol addiction is, will determine if you should consider residential rehab. Private inpatient rehab for alcohol can be arranged quickly and, on average, requires a 28-day stay at a rehab centre. Your treatment will involve a supported and medically supervised alcohol detox and proven addiction therapy to ensure you stop drinking for good.
When you cannot go into residential rehab due to other responsibilities, you can receive outpatient rehab. When you receive treatment as an outpatient, you will attend addiction therapy during the day to assist you with your alcohol detox.
What Is the Cost of Private Alcohol Rehab?
The cost of private rehab treatment will depend on various factors. When considering a rehab centre, it is important to ask what support and addiction aftercare you will have access to once you finish your rehab. Addiction aftercare when you leave rehab is critical and will significantly increase your chances of avoiding a relapse.
Overcoming Alcohol Addiction
Alcoholism is a disease, and treatment is available and effective. If you have children and a problem with alcohol, please don’t think you are alone. Alcoholism does not mean you don’t love your children. If you have found this blog post, we hope you will make the first step towards recovery and consider rehab for alcohol to start a better life for you and your children.
At Step by Step Recovery addiction treatment also means providing support to the people we treat and their friends and family.
We can offer free advice on supporting and treating addiction. Step by Step Recovery exists to help individuals beat drug addiction permanently. Please complete our online assessment form to learn more about our bespoke alcohol rehab-treatment programmes. Alternatively, please call our understanding team on 0800 170 1222 for more information about our private outpatient rehab and inpatient or residential rehab for drug addiction.
We are here to offer you advice on treatment options and the next steps.
