Impact of Addiction on Children

“For every addict, there are five to seven people deeply impacted by living with addiction … whose lives are forever changed. The most vulnerable of these are children,” writes Meadows Senior Fellow Dr. Tian Dayton, author of The ACOA [Adult Children of Alcoholics] Trauma Syndrome. “ The impact of parental addictions on children could be physically as well as mentally devastating for them. They are raised in an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity. These children are at an increased risk of physical illnesses, emotional instability, lower grade performance at school, impaired cognitive abilities and addiction itself among others. Injuries are common in the children of addicts, as violence pairs alcoholism in most of the cases. Also, eventual incidence poverty is commonplace in most households with addiction, as the money meant for family maintenance is diverted to buying alcohol and drugs. Though the impact on children could be myriad, some of them can be classified as following:

Higher Risk

Children living under the cloud of addiction have greater risk at home. Especially, in cases where marijuana is cultivated and sold, children are frequently exposed to criminality and violence. Such children are at the highest risk of physical and sexual abuse. Also, the child’s psychological and emotional health could be significantly impacted. Children constantly live in fear and depend on outsiders for friendship and support. The children in these households may also become addicts because of the stress and anxiety they live through every day.

Developmental Issues

Study suggests that at least 23% of children, who are born to addicts are deprived of primary health care in the initial years. In cases where the mother is an addict, children may experience malnutrition and may have to live under unsanitary conditions, a little to no support, no supervision and frequent isolation. Addict mothers are incapable of providing due attention to the needs of their children. Most of the times, it is noticed that parents who abuse substances have co-morbid conditions like psychological illnesses. i.e. depression, narcissism, anxiety etc. which create hell on the earth for children. The children grow up with lower self-esteem, shame and are mostly incapable of holding jobs and building long time relationships. In short, it is a dangerous home life for them.

Acting Out

Children living with addict parents often exhibit behavioural problems, academic failures, learning disabilities and defensive responses. Since, they are constantly subjected to physical and emotional harm, they grow up to be irrational and erratic adolescents who are hard to mend. They possess lesser social sense and manners and could hardly deploy volition. Lack of supervision and attention while bringing up children coupled with similar associations drives them rouge and most importantly against the other children of the same age who are better and flourishing. Violent behaviour stems from the childhood either as a defense mechanism or as a revengeful pattern. Both of which push them into a vicious cycle of perpetration and victimhood. They think addiction is a norm and solution to stress and therefore resort to the same behaviour as their addict parents. They act out.

Physical impact

Addicted parents are themselves slaves of addiction and lay their entire focus on procuring and continuing substance. The physical and psychological highs experienced by the addicts give them a sort of relief that they do not hesitate to continue even at the expense of their loved ones. Children whose parents are in grips of addiction and substance abuse are continually subjected to, minor to full blown abuse, physically and sexually. Some studies even found cases where the addicted mom or dad use their minor children for sexual favours in return for money. These children experience immense trauma both physically and psychologically to an extent beyond reversible. Cases in which the addicts abuse their own children sexually after getting intoxicated also have become common.

In cases, where the mothers are addicts, the physical abuse begins even before the children are born. We notice pregnant mothers abusing themselves with substance and smoke on a daily basis. These mothers either undergo an abortion or give birth to a not very healthy, underweight or malformed babies. Addiction is stubborn and goes beyond the emotions of motherhood. In other cases where men in the family are addicts, pregnant women are often physically abused by their uncontrolled rage and aggression, that sometimes results in the loss of malformation of the baby or even worse, the death of both the mother and the baby.

Psychological Effects

The households of addicts are always violent and are ruled by chaos and fear. Children in these households grow up to be insecure, lonely individuals who dread talking to others and mingling with a new crowd. Because the addicted parents have no time to attend their children, they do not understand and respect authority and therefore they cannot hold jobs. They become rebels of a kind who can go to any lengths to draw attention to themselves. These children are denied of love and affection even from the closer circles and relatives. Shame is another consequence of hailing from such families. Everything put together, we can assume that such households we can witness a commonality of addiction in these children either in a way that they themselves becoming addicts to escape societal pressure or marrying or dating addicts. Put it short, they are psychologically impoverished to be able to lead a healthy social life.

Emotional Effects

Emotional effects in the children of addicts could be seen right from their birth. Children are generally attached to their mother from the womb itself. Mothers speak to the child and provide that touch which is crucial for deep bonding between mom and the child during pregnancy. Since addict mothers do not have cognitive abilities and neurological functions that create the bond, they neglect the needs of the child during pregnancy itself. After the children are born, lack of attention and care causes feelings of distrust and insecurity among them. Their emotional needs are not met and they are generally detached from the world. On the contrary, these children start feeling responsible for the well-being of their parents and blame themselves thinking that they are responsible for their parent’s erratic behaviour. The emotional effects in addict’s children range from guilt, shame, insecurity to higher sense of responsibility which they are not capable of.