by Linda Shrigley

Created on: September 20, 2008   Last Updated: May 22, 2010

Alcohol as a cause of family problems

Alcoholism does not only affect the drinkers, they have a more powerful effect on the families of the drinkers. Alcohol destroys whole families when it gets control of only one member. It starts off with small problems like they forgot to pick up the groceries, or dry cleaning, just as an example. From there, it only escalates into the cause of divorce, or abuse to other family members. It does not only affect the family in the home, it affects the whole family, and every family member from the Grandparents to the children.

Alcohol starts off as just one drink to settle my nerves. I need something to take the edge off. I'm celebrating my promotion. I just had a new baby, let's have a drink to celebrate the birth. One drink leads to two, two drinks leads to three, and so on, and so on. The next thing you know, you are fall down drunk every night, using the excuse that I just needed something to take the edge off of my nerves, or I needed to relax.

The drinker starts coming home later, and later each night. They forget to show up for dinner, and then they get angry when their dinner is not on the table when they get home at 10 or 11 at night. It's harder on the children than most people like to admit, but I know this from experience. Living in the same house as an alcoholic is something no child should have to suffer through. The parent comes home drunk, in a bad mood, and the other parent and the children take the brunt of that anger. One partner starts to beat on the other, and then they go after the children, simply because they have made some noise as they played, or the TV is too loud. The drinker does not have to have an excuse, there is no reason for them to take their anger out on the children; they just do it. Don't try to make sense of it; there is no sense to beating up a child, or any other member of the family.

Some people seem to think that alcoholism runs in the family. In my experience, alcohol has had the opposite. No one else in my family drank to excess, except my father. In some cases it may be true that alcohol may run in the genes of families, but I have to tell you that it is not always the case. Some children from an alcoholic parent will get turned off of drinking, because of the way they were treated by an alcohol parent when they were young.

It does not take long before the alcoholic has brought financial problems into the home. They are drinking away their paychecks. The bills do not get paid,

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