Personal Narrative: Growing Up With An Alcoholic Father

For about 10 years of my life, my family and I have struggled with the fact that my dad is an alcoholic. For about 6 of those 10 years, I didn’t really understand how much of a problem it was. Growing up, my dad had always been my hero. We were super close. He would play softball with me, take me fishing, and teach me crazy things about space.

The impact of his father’s addiction still reflects in every walk of his life, every string of his personality and in his life, he won’t let his children go anywhere near alcohol or any other such

After reading Scott Russell Sanders', "Under the Influence", it got me thinking, if these were examples from his past life growing up with an alcoholic as a father and how it effects his life now, what are the effects does it have on other adults who grew up with an addictive parent? After reading one article I found that most children who grew up in alcoholic homes reported significantly less utilization of interpersonal resources as a child, also had reported more emotional and psychological problems in adulthood and had significantly more family disruptions characterized by higher divorce rate, premature prenatal and sibling death. Some of the children had experianced more physical and sexual abuse and more frequently become alcoholics or

These emotions often arise as a result of the challenges and dynamics associated with alcohol addiction. Here are examples and references that highlight these emotional experiences: 1.Disempowerment: Family members living with an alcoholic may feel disempowered as they witness the destructive behavior of the alcoholic and their inability to control or change the situation. They may feel helpless, trapped, and unable to effectively address or resolve the issues associated with alcohol addiction. This disempowerment can lead to a sense of frustration and hopelessness. 2 Disempowerment: Family members living with an alcoholic often feel disempowered as they witness the loss of control over their own lives and the inability to influence or change the alcoholic's behavior.

My dad kind of had a drinking problem when he was young, but nothing really serious. He started drinking alcohol in his teenage years. And he’s still has been drinking alcohol to this day. On weekends, he would go hang out with his friends from work every Friday and play pool at their houses. He would sometimes call my mom late at night asking if she could pick him up because he was too drunk to drive.

As lifeless as she looked, her eyes were open. Smothered underwater in a baby pool on the back porch, I ran to her aid thinking she was no longer alive. Fortunately, she was still breathing and I cautiously dragged her out of the water. Tears streamed down my face as I shook her limp body in an attempt to bring her to consciousness. As a fourth grader, this was a horrendous experience, however, several other of my mother’s drunken episodes were just as terrifying.

Alcoholism in parents can cause children to be more likely to struggle emotionally, physically, and mentally but this can all be prevented by parents not drinking unrestrained amounts of

If you look at The Shining by Stephen King, Jack Torrance became an alcoholic in his young adult life and saw a need for it during any situation. During one night of drinking, his young son, Danny, made him mad and he then accidently broke his son’s arm because there was nothing being done about his alcoholism. That night became a defining moment in his family’s life, he continued to drink and almost lost his entire family because of his addiction. Luckily, he stopped because he was so terrified of a car ride/accident that happened one of the nights after he had been drinking with a friend, if this hadn’t happened his wife would have most likely divorced him. Every day, Jack’s wife, Wendy, looked and could not forget what he had done to their innocent son because of alcohol and his anger issues.

Alcoholism is a chronic brain disease that affects all walks of life and does not have any bounders (Gossop, Stewart, & Marsden, 2008). I choose to attend an Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) meeting since this disease is prevalent among adolescents and adults. The meeting was held in the first-floor forum at Pilgrim Congressional Church in Queens New York. The goals of the AA meeting were stated explicitly by the leader conducting the meeting. The mission of the organization is to maintain sobriety by helping alcoholics achieve recovery.

Losing a battle to illness is devastating and utterly heartbreaking. With addiction, it is quite often that people fail and fall into their old habits. Others simply don’t want to be sober. In How to Help Someone with an Opioid Addiction, published by the Chicago Sun Times, the author lists ways for friends and family members to assist in the process of sobriety. But, what if it doesn’t work?

Alcoholism is a significant problem in American society. About 20 million people in the United States abuse alcohol and out of that number, around 10 million are addicted to alcohol and considered an alcoholic ("Alcoholism" 1). In The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, Jeannette's father, Rex, shows signs of being an alcoholic. His disease puts a lot of strain on the family and relationships within the family and eventually, Jeannette's father dies from heart failure, a common disease caused by alcoholism. Rex Walls can be identified as an alcoholic father by most of the six identifiers of an alcoholic from the American Addiction Center.

Alcoholics are often used in stories as comic relief, which to a person who grew up under the shadow of alcoholism, isn’t very funny at all. This point was to illustrate that people really don’t understand alcoholism for what it really is: a disease that has devastating effects on families for generations. Instead of directly countering those misconceptions, Sanders describes his upbringing in vivid detail. He describes his father’s behavior in a way that makes the reader appreciate that there comes a point where alcoholism is not really a matter of a person having a moral weakness, a lack of self-control, or is weak-willed. It’s a disease that robs people of their lives and of themselves.

People hear the side of the addict themselves so much more often, that the parents’ point of view is more shocking and emotional. Thus, they are able to understand better because they can relate to his normal family, that is going through an abnormal

When I was a teenager, the cool thing to do was hang out with friends, party, and drink alcohol, so I thought. My friends and I would tend to follow the crowd and it seemed to always lead to trouble. I was only 14 years old the night it all began. At the time, I could not drive so my friends came and picked me up, we all went to a house party and alcohol was there. Because we were senseless and easily influenced, we decided to try some to fit in.

Many people get used to drink alcohol , and they can easily abuse; that is the problem. Alcoholism is the abuse of alcohol by people who are unable to control their drinking behavior over an extended period of time. Alcoholics are not simply people who drink alcohol; instead, their entire lives revolve around it. At first, everyone who starts drinking alcoholic beverages, thinks that its something normal, and that it's okay to do it, but what they really don't know yet, is that this particular habit has a way of turning itself into one of the worst addictions in the world.