How Exposure to Addiction Affects Adolescents

@Rosemary Tisch posted:

Peton - Thank you for the reminder that addiction in the family is a major ACE factor.  In fact both authors (Felitti and Anda) recognized the tremendous impact of addiction on children.

• The ACE Study provides population-based clinical evidence that unrecognized adverse childhood experiences are a major, if not the major, determinant of who turns to psychoactive materials and becomes ‘addicted’ (Felitti, 2003).
• Growing up with alcohol abusing parents is strongly related to the risk of experiencing other categories of ACEs (Anda, 2010).

NACoA distributes a great program for children from families dealing with addiction or substance use disroders, Celebrating Families!(CF!)  You can read a bit more at https://www.preventionpartners...s/aces-trauma-and-cf (Prevention Partnership International are the program developers of CF!, working with agencies in California.)

Hi Rosemary, thanks for reading! Those statistics you provided are eye-opening and show how much of an effect addiction can have on people. I look forward to reading more. Thanks again.

@Frank Sterle Jr. posted:

The children should be informed that serious life trauma, notably adverse childhood experiences, is typically behind a substance abuser’s debilitating addiction, I began to understand ball-and-chain self-medicating: The greater the drug-induced euphoria or escape one attains from its use, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their sober reality, the more pleasurable that escape should be perceived. By extension, the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while sober, the greater the need for escape from reality, thus the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.          

Tragically, the pain may be so overwhelming that the most extreme and potentially permanent form of escape—suicidal behaviour—is sometimes chosen.          

Yet, in many straight minds drug addicts have somehow committed a moral crime, perhaps even those who’d become addicted to opiates prescribed them for an innocent sports or work injury.          

We now know pharmaceutical corporations intentionally pushed their very addictive opiate pain killers—the real moral crime—for which they got off relatively lightly, considering the resulting immense suffering and overdose death numbers. 

Hi Frank, thank you for your words. The stigma behind substance abuse is hard to overcome. It's a shame that many substance abusers looked down upon, even by their families in some cases. We all need to work to end this stigma and make seeking treatment the more natural response when exposed to these issues.

@Lisa Frederiksen posted:

Thank you for this post, Peyton.  Similar to your point, "It is also important to understand that a household that deals with substance abuse likely faces other challenges that could impact a child’s upbringing," I wrote a post for ACEs Connection titled, "When 1 ACE Can Get You 8 More," linked here https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/when-1-ace-can-get-you-8-more." The points Frank and Rosemary make in their comments are equally important. Thanks again for writing this because this kind of "dialogue" that's so important to have.

Hi Lisa, thanks for reading! I'm glad posts like these can lead to discussions like we are seeing here. Looking forward to reading your post!

Thank you for this post, Peyton.  Similar to your point, "It is also important to understand that a household that deals with substance abuse likely faces other challenges that could impact a child’s upbringing," I wrote a post for ACEs Connection titled, "When 1 ACE Can Get You 8 More," linked here https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/when-1-ace-can-get-you-8-more." The points Frank and Rosemary make in their comments are equally important. Thanks again for writing this because this kind of "dialogue" that's so important to have.

The children should be informed that serious life trauma, notably adverse childhood experiences, is typically behind a substance abuser’s debilitating addiction. I began to understand this ball-and-chain self-medicating fundamentally as: the greater the drug-induced euphoria or escape one attains from its use, the more one wants to repeat the experience; and the more intolerable one finds their sober reality, the more pleasurable that escape should be perceived. By extension, the greater one’s mental pain or trauma while sober, the greater the need for escape from reality, thus the more addictive the euphoric escape-form will likely be.          

Tragically, the pain may be so overwhelming that the most extreme and potentially permanent form of escape—suicidal behaviour—is sometimes chosen.          

Yet, in many straight minds drug addicts have somehow committed a moral crime, perhaps even those who’d become addicted to opiates prescribed them for an innocent sports or work injury.          

We now know pharmaceutical corporations intentionally pushed their very addictive opiate pain killers—the real moral crime—for which they got off relatively lightly, considering the resulting immense suffering and overdose death numbers. 

Peton - Thank you for the reminder that addiction in the family is a major ACE factor.  In fact both authors (Felitti and Anda) recognized the tremendous impact of addiction on children.

• The ACE Study provides population-based clinical evidence that unrecognized adverse childhood experiences are a major, if not the major, determinant of who turns to psychoactive materials and becomes ‘addicted’ (Felitti, 2003).
• Growing up with alcohol abusing parents is strongly related to the risk of experiencing other categories of ACEs (Anda, 2010).

NACoA distributes a great program for children from families dealing with addiction or substance use disroders, Celebrating Families!(CF!)  You can read a bit more at https://www.preventionpartners...s/aces-trauma-and-cf (Prevention Partnership International are the program developers of CF!, working with agencies in California.)