How parental substance abuse impacts children

It’s no secret that addiction ruins lives. When parents become addicted to drugs and alcohol, it impacts their physical and emotional health, behaviors, and their ability to effectively parent their children.

For the children, they can experience minor neglect up to full-blown physical, mental and even sexual abuse. For parents who are struggling with substance abuse, it can cause immense trauma and a child’s emotional and psychological development can be impacted to a degree that can be beyond repair.

Here are some concerning facts provided by the Child Welfare Information Gateway on the impact of parental addiction on children that sheds a very disturbing light to this subject:

•An estimated 12 percent of children in this country live with a parent who is dependent on or abuses alcohol or other drugs.

•8.3 million children under 18 years of age lived with at least one substance-dependent or substance-abusing parent. Of these children, approximately 7.3 million lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused alcohol, and about 2.2 million lived with a parent who was dependent on or abused illicit drugs.

•400,000 infants each year are born exposed to substances prenatally.

•According to data from both the 2011 and 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 5.9 percent of pregnant women aged 15 to 44 were current illicit drug users. Younger pregnant women generally reported the greatest substance use, with rates approaching 18.3 percent among 15- to 17-year-olds. Among pregnant women aged 15 to 44 years old, about 8.5 percent reported current alcohol use, 2.7 percent reported binge drinking, and .3 percent reported heavy drinking.

Parental alcohol or drug abuse is considered an adverse childhood experience, or ACE. Psychologists coined the term in one of the most comprehensive studies of the effects of childhood neglect and abuse on health and well-being later in life. Children growing up in an environment filled with chronic emotional stress as a result of parental addiction negatively impacts children’s brain development from infancy.

Physical effects for children with addicted parents can develop anxiety-based illnesses due to their parent’s addiction, such as asthma, or migraines. Children can feel intense loneliness and isolation as a result of a parent or both parents focusing their energy on continuing their substance use. As a result, children can develop deep depression and it can lead to self-harming behaviors such as cutting or suicide attempts.

Mental effects for children with addicted parents include insecurity and worry. Children in these environments can often slip through the cracks in school and perform poorly academically. If they do manage to do well, they can still slip through the cracks due to the lack of support and encouragement in the home.

Emotionally, children can develop a lack of attachment due to pattern of detachment from their parent that is in addiction. This can result in deep trust issues and the inability to appropriately develop empathy toward others. Emotional conflict can occur as they grow older with the child feeling the need to take care of their parent, or feeling as though their parents’ addiction is their fault. Also, children who come from homes in which parents were addicted to drugs or alcohol are more likely to start using drugs earlier in their lives and become addicted more quickly than peers from homes without substance abuse.

If you are a parent struggling with addiction, you do not have to face this challenge alone. Help is available and you and your children are worth it. It all starts with making the decision to reach out for help. Contact your local mental health center, pastor, doctor, or just a trusted friend that can guide you in the right direction.