Adult Children of Alcoholics



Adult Children of Alcoholics

Introduction

Young adulthood is the most important life period in the development and expression of alcohol use disorders. Alcohol consumption typically begins during early adolescence and usually peaks during young adulthood when alcohol use disorders are most prevalent (17% - 23% for men and 4% - 10% for women aged 18- 29). An adult child of alcoholics is ELEMENT men and women who grew up surrounded by the problems of addiction or other dysfunction. No one has neither the right nor the power to say to another what he should do to find path to recovery (Jacob, 2009). Young adults have the highest rate of alcohol use disorders than any other age cohort. Of all adults with alcohol use disorders, most cases are diagnosed before the age of 26. The National College Health Risk Behavior Survey evaluated alcohol use in college students and found similar results. At this stage, 70.1 percent of individuals age 18-24 years have consumed alcohol and 41.75 percent have had 5 + drinks in a row during in the past 30 days; 3.5 percent are daily drinkers (Ackerman, 2007).

Gender differences were evident with a higher prevalence of males than females that used alcohol; binge drank, or drank daily during the previous 30 days. Additionally, with regard to ethnicity, both studies show similar findings as well. Whites had the highest rates of alcohol consumption, followed by Hispanics, and African Americans had the lowest rates. Clearly, young adulthood is a period of time where alcohol use disorders emerge and become most prevalent. A great majority of individuals who will develop alcohol use disorders in their lifetime have already done so (Rapee, 2007). Because of earlier vulnerabilities and developmental processes that might come into play in the development of alcohol use disorders, it is important to consider alcoholism from a developmental perspective. In this paper we are going to focus on Adult Children of Alcoholics with support group (ie, Al-Anon). Adult children of alcoholics (Ross, 2001):

Try to guess what the norm

Experience difficulties in bringing their cases to the end

Lying in situations where the same success could tell the truth

Ruthlessly condemn themselves

Experiencing difficulty in experiencing pleasure and fun

Refer to themselves too seriously

Have difficulty in establishing intimate relationships

Excessive react in a situation of change, who cannot control

Constantly seeking recognition and acknowledgment

It is believed that they differ from other

Bear the responsibility of over-or completely irresponsible

Extremely loyal, even in the face of facts that another person does not deserve it

Impulsively

Feel guilty when protecting their rights and therefore are often inferior to others.

Are afraid of other people, and especially before any kind of authority and command

Are afraid of someone else's anger, and scandals

They like to act like victims

Very afraid of loosing

Afraid to show their feelings

It is easy to become dependent, or are dependent partners

Type of Group

The type of group chosen for my population is Al-Alon. This type of group is suitable for this type of population because they are self-help groups where they are relatives of alcoholics are ...