When people think of dysfunctional families they tend to think of fatherless homes, impoverished households, and child abuse. Very rarely does this train of thought lead to one of the most predominant sources of many of these symptoms: alcoholism. I suffered through those symptoms (as well as others) through the duration of my childhood years. The stem of those problems was, in fact, alcoholism. Alcoholism is unquestionably debilitating to families, and very little is being done to target this core problem.I understand that there are many other pressing problems affecting families today. I also understand that its difficult to target each and every one of these problems. However, if we take a step back to the source of some of these problems, we will see that a good amount of the time the source stems from alcoholism.
             Alcohol is not the problem, alcoholism is. Drinking alcohol in a social setting is perfectly acceptable. I myself am a social drinker. Contrary to the odds, I am capable of exercising moderation. Although I have this ability, I have seen the blatant lack of such from a very personal perspective. My dad is an alcoholic. I saw the way the disease slowly deteriorated my family. My family was a textbook case of a family ruined by alcoholism. We went through periods of extreme financial problems because my dad couldn't hold down a job. My dad mentally and physically abused every member in our family. Eventually my home was left a fatherless one. You see, it's when people begin taking drinking out of that "social" context when they start running into a problem. It's then that we can realize that there's a problem.
             Children of alcoholics are more at risk for alcoholism and other drug use than children of non-alcoholics. They are two to four times more likely to develop alcoholism than others. This should be a red flag that we should target children young if we wish to prevent alcoholism. There is strong recent scientific...