Discussing alcoholism as a family crisis

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A family institution often faces a cocktail of crisis that threatens to sever the bond that sustains its overall existence. These negative occurrences rarely discriminate on whom to affect but goes ahead to spread their poisonous tentacles to all members of the family. According to medical terms, alcoholism can be defined as a diseased condition that comes into existence due to excessive and uncontrollable use of alcoholic beverages. In a family where by there is an alcoholic, each member may be affected by the alcohol differently. Parental alcoholism can affect the fetus before a child is born. In a pregnant woman, alcohol is carried to every of the mother’s organs as well as tissues, including the placenta, whereby it easily crosses through the membrane that separate the maternal and the fetal blood systems. When a pregnant woman engages in drinking an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol concentration in the unborn baby’s bloodstream is at the same level as her own.

The more severe the drinking problem of the mother becomes during pregnancy, the more severe are the symptoms of FAS in infants. The worst part of it happens when the main pillars of the family, which is the father and the mother, are affected since the effects trickle down to the dependants. In some instances, these crisis gets sorted out thus restoring a family to its former glory and this happens out of a collective responsibility or an individual initiative to tackle the issue at hand. Sometimes, family crisis is related and usually adopt a consecutive trend with events following each other or happening as a result of the existence of one or more situations.

Similar to different systems or units that constitute any other institutions, the family contains individuals whose operations and governance can be described as independent or semi-autonomous. Despite having a central control that is deemed to be the parents, the dependants sometimes resume the independent status either out of becoming of age or being rebellious. About a family being segmented into units that are independent, a crisis can affect a family partially, which means one member of the family, but since all family members are intertwined either out of financial or being related, the effects are felt by the entire unit. There are exemptions in family crisis repercussions analysis, but this depends largely on the basic nature of the situation that a family faces. In some family setups, the members do not hold close ties though related in one way or another and this leaves the victims bearing the blunt of the problem that they are facing by themselves.

Alcoholism can be cited as one of the most conspicuous family crisis that many units face dating back from many generations that have passed. It is a vice that have seen many families undergoing various consequential scenarios as it is associated with other possible vices that form its distributaries. These subsequent scenarios include abusive or violent relationships, broken marriages, bankruptcy, terminal illness, strained resources and possible eventual demise of the victim. The psychological discomfort that is brought about by alcoholism affects those who are not partaking in the addiction since they are usually in their sound mind thus able to take stock of the effects of alcoholism.

An alcoholic finds it hard to realize the intensity at which the practice affects the rest of the members. Addiction is a prerequisite of alcoholism that means that the victim rarely finds himself more sob thus it is always impossible for such individual to realize the painful reality that the rest of the family members are being affected. At this point, it becomes a collective responsibility to salvage an alcoholic family member since seldom does an addict decides to turn around and give up the practice. Alcoholism reduces one to becoming dependent on alcohol in order to do anything. A critical analysis can relate alcohol addiction to low esteem, impaired thinking, and withdrawal syndrome being factors that fuel the urge to take alcohol before carrying out any task or becoming active in any way.

Fighting alcoholism is a gradual process regardless whether it is a collective exercise or a personal decision. Application of preventive measures is usually the best step to take and it can only work when signs of alcoholism are noted in time before the practice becomes fully fledged. Nevertheless, anybody can be relieved of alcoholism but this depends on self willingness to divert from it. Nobody can be compelled to turn around from alcoholism since some of the victims becomes adaptive of the situations that result from it and that includes being hopeless.

In conclusion, alcohol usually affects every member of the family – ranging from the unborn child going to the to the parents. Its far-reaching effects always result in not only serious physical problems for the alcohol drinker, but also result in psychological problems for the other members of the family. The treatment is usually complicated and it often is not completely successful. Even if the alcohol drinker ultimately reforms, the other family members who were greatly affected may not ever recover from all the problems that were inflicted upon them.

References

Berger, G. (1993). Alcoholism and the family. New York: Franklin WattsSilverstein, H. (1990). Alcoholism. New York: Franklin WattsWekesser, C. (1994). Alcoholism. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc.