Comments
This statistical summary is very
misleading. The good news is that it alerts the public to a serious US
health problem. The bad news is it understates the actual statistics because
chemical addicts commonly deny they have a problem. We also don't know what the
survey defined as chemical abuse or dependence. There is
widespread disagreement on what these terms mean.
This report implies but avoids
stating directly that families with one or more chemically-dependent adults are
"dysfunctional" - i.e. they often cause serious psychological and physiological
problems to their members and to society.
The author misses a chance to stress
that chemical addiction is a family problem, not an
individual one. S/He also misses the chance to note that
there are three other types of addiction (moods, activities, and relationships)
that are equally damaging. This is another reason that the actual number of
Ameri-can kids living with an addicted parent (i.e. living in a low-nurturance
family) is far higher than 12%.
The report says the results emphasize the
need for "preventive interventions at the earliest possible (child's) age." As
with most media coverage of addictions,
the author suggests substance "abuse" is the problem, rather than a symptom of
what causes it. From 30 years' clinical experience and study, I
pro-pose that all addictions are
unconscious attempts to minimize significant
which starts in a
childhood.
Family
in this nonprofit Web site focuses on how to assess and reduce the inner
pain that causes up to six major psychological wounds - which in turn,
promote addictions.
For more perspective see this
series of articles on addictions and
interventions. Also see the Web sites of the
Children of Alcoholics (COA) Foundation and
Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA).
- PKG
The Web address of this article is
http://sfhelp.org/gwc/news/coastats.htm