Taichi for your Health

While addiction to alcohol often has terrible consequences in the life of the addict, its effects on the family of the user are frequently even more devastating. Without drug detox treatment, physical, emotional, and psychological abuse is the frequent byproduct of the alcoholic household. Alcoholism itself is an indicator that a person cannot care for himself in a healthy way. Self-destructive behaviors often obscure deep personal anguish.

Precipitating events for alcoholism are often rooted in emotional pain. Since alcohol is an anesthetic, the primary response in the body is numbness. Logic dictates that if an individual repeatedly uses an anesthetic, there is comfort in this feeling. It follows that there is a pain the user wishes to avoid through using the substance.

Although scientists are still uncovering data regarding genetic predisposition to alcoholism, a gap remains in their understanding of how the gene is “turned on” for alcoholism versus the environmental factors that may be responsible for alcohol abuse.

As kids, children of alcoholics frequently suffer from anxiety and low self-esteem. They are also at greater risk to become drug abusers themselves. Over 60% of underage drinkers reported that friends or family supplied them with alcohol, suggesting that behavior may contribute to alcoholism. Despite trauma experienced by children who survive alcoholic childhoods, many grow into functioning adults.

However, even functioning survivors have a high rate of depression. Considering that an estimated 10 million children under the age of 18 live with alcoholics, it is easy to imagine how the personal issues of these individuals can be magnified to affect future generations. In light of this fact, alcohol treatment for the alcoholic parent seems a less expensive and more humane choice.

40% of alcoholics report a relative who also suffered from the disease. This supports the cyclical nature of alcoholism within a family. These children suffer from a host of other unquantifiable difficulties into adulthood. While the children of alcoholics may avoid alcoholism, most of them find themselves in a codependent relationship with a drug or alcohol abuser. In this behavioral pattern, the survivor often unconsciously enables an addict to continue in a self-destructive pattern.

Because children of alcoholics often grow up caring for their alcoholic parent, they often have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility for others and struggle to care for themselves. In alcohol rehabs, recovering addicts learn that these actions mimic the childhood model with which they are most familiar. Within its parameters, the survivor of this childhood is often left equipped with the perfect tools for surviving just such an unhappy situation… and being without the means to create a healthy life without the shadow of alcoholism and codependency.

However, there is hope. Despite genetic predisposition, many survivors of alcoholic homes choose not to drink. Fortunately, there are also numerous resources for survivors, including self-help groups and, if they are alcoholics themselves, alcohol rehab programs that will put them on the path to healing.

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