Alcoholism;Does It Only Affect The User?
             Many people don't realize how greatly alcoholic parents affect children. I have experienced most of the effects myself. Growing up in the house under the supervision of an alcoholic can be very painful. Doing this paper gave me a lot of insight on myself. I found some reason as to why I am the way I am. Although it might not be as fatal as fetal alcohol syndrome, it can definitely shape the way a person handles themselves in many different situations.
             "One in five Americans lived with an alcoholic while growing up," (Torr 30). In my opinion, this is a rather high statistic. They are also, "Four times more likely than other children to become alcoholics," (Torr 30). In a lot of cases alcoholism can be hereditary. You'll find that most alcoholics have a parent who was an alcoholic. In my case, my mother was an alcoholic, her father was an alcoholic, and his father was an alcoholic.
             This is usually the general knowledge of the subject to the average person. What they do not know, is that it goes much deeper than that. The child may not even realize that a lot of their actions are due to certain feelings that are caused by the alcoholic parent. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has found that most commonly the child will experience failure in school, lack of friends, delinquent behavior, and risk taking behavior. It may even go as far as physical complaints, aggression, depression, or suicidal thoughts, and of course abuse of alcohol or drugs (Torr 31). I personally believe that if most parents knew that these would be the consequences their children would have to suffer, they would have never let themselves become an alcoholic. If the alcoholic is usually in denial about their problem, how could they make the connection of their child's behavior with their own? Sixty percent of Americans between the ages of twenty-six to thirty four...