How Drug Use Impacts the Family

"When people live together over a period of time, they develop patterns of relating to one another" (Lammana, 1991, p. 514). Any factor that disrupts these expectations marks the onset of a crisis. The insertion of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, crack, barbiturates and alcohol, with their chemical dependency nature, can not only generate a crisis but force a total reorganization of the family unit (Lammana, 1991, p. 524).

Young people have been turning to drugs in record numbers over the last ten years: "They're getting high on everything from Raid to tea bags, and they're doing everything from stealing money out of mom's purse to turning to prostitution to buy drugs" (Polson, 1984, p. 6). Drugs are everywhere and they strike troubled families as well as those whose children are seeming achievers, good students, and athletes. However, a parent can also be the drug addict, a situatio

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t," and as a result, the family balances itself to accommodate the drug or alcohol abuse. The unit becomes known as a "dysfunctional" family. Experts have come to realize that drug and alcohol abuse is a family disease and that family members are as much in need of support as the addict. The term "co-dependent" is applied to these other members. They can be parents, children, siblings, friends, bartenders, teachers, counselors - anyone whose life would change dramatically if the abuser's life changed (Meyer, 1984, p. 209). The one thing all family members have in common initially is denial, whether it is the parent who refuses to accept the fact that his/her child is on drugs, or the wife who rationalizes her husband's drinking, or the abuser's refusal to accept his/her addiction. An example is the wife of an alcoholic. She takes care of him, cleaning up after him, being responsible for all the things he messes up and keeping the family together. Her whole life is centered on him and his process. The spouse doesn't have to be responsible for herself because she has to take care of him. Consciously or unconsciously, the primary goal of the co-alcoholic is to keep the abuser stuck - all the while looking as though they a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Alcoholics COA, Institute Stress, , Alcoholics Anonymous, Company Leerhsen, References Comer, meyer 1984, maxwell 1986, MA Riedman, Newton PhD, family unit, Paul Rosch, drug alcohol abuse, drug alcohol, alcohol abuse, Books Meyer, meyer 1984 177, family play, chemical dependency, lammana 1991, polson 1984, comer 1989,
Approximate Word count = 1783
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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