Family History With Substance Abuse

Having a parent and a family history with a substance abuse has positively affected my life. There are a lot people who would not agree with that statement, but in my case it is true. I never remember either of my parents drinking. We never had alcohol in the house and my parents never went out to bars to drink. My father hid his addiction with alcohol from my mother and myself. When I was around ten years old my parents sat me down and told me that my father had a drinking problem and was going to be seeking help. My mother explained to me what alcoholism was and that my dad would start going to AA meetings. It was then our job to help support him. This is a lot for a ten year old to take in and comprehend. However, my parents assured me this would be best for our family and our family structure was not going to change. I am not alone when it comes to having a parent with a substance abuse problem. “Today in the United States alone there are an estimated 28 million children who have alcoholic parents. This figure is staggering when it is considered that at least 11 million of those children are under the age of 18” (Alcoholism Statistics). I was very fortunate that I had a father who wanted to stop drinking and a mother who was willing to stand by and support him. Not everyone is that fortunate. My father was all too

My dad has three siblings, all of them have had their own person battle with alcohol at one time or another. Once my dad got sober, he started to distance himself from his siblings. He did not want them effecting his sobriety. His younger sister had the hardest time with this. I remember us not answering the phone when she would call. She would then proceed to leave long rambling voice mails on our answering machine. It is not surprising that they all have had to face this issue consider their parents, my paternal grandparents, were both