alcoholic

=A Letter to Alcoholics= Dear Alcoholics, If you have children, I hope you read this and seriously consider the way that you are affecting your children. It is obvious that alcohol impairs your judgment but it also impairs your relationship with your entire family. Families with an alcoholic parent tend to be much less expressive towards one another than other families. If you love your child it is important for you to show it. In the memoir __Lucky__, Alice Sebold is the daughter of an alcoholic mother and describes her life as her mother strives to stay sober. "I soon discovered that only the unconscious touch slipped by inside my house. As a little girl I would sometimes plan my attack, the goal: to be touched. My mother would be sitting at her end of the couch, doing needlepoint or reading a book. For my purposes it was best if she was reading a book and watching television at the same time. The most distraction, the less chance she would notice my approach" (50). Is your child one of the six million children that live in the same house with a parent addicted to alcohol? I really hope not. Her entire family is completely disconnected from one another. When Alice was younger, she was too innocent to know what alcohol or an alcoholic were. But now, she can admit what she smelled and what she saw. "My mother's pillows when I was little smelled like cherries. It was a sickeningly sweet smell. It was the same way my rapist smelled on the night of the rape. I would not admit to myself until years later that this was the smell of alcohol" (46). If your child could say the same thing or have similar memories, I hope this touched you as much as it touched me and could create a change in your addiction. Children shouldn't have to see or deal with the consequences of an alcoholic, as it can affect their minds for the rest of their lives. These children may form emotional, behavioral, and academic problems that will most likely prevent them from success in the future. Every parent would love to see their son or daughter grow to become a doctor or a lawyer. Are you any different? Do you really want to see your small child become stressed and suffer from depression because of your actions? Because that is what happens to the children of most alcoholics. Do you want to know what could happen to you? "She would hunch over during a flap and rapidly rub her breastbone to soothe what she described as her exploding heart. I would rush into the store to buy a cantaloupe and maybe something on sale near the front, wondering all the time, Will she make it to the car? Will she be all right?" (48). She also says, "When I was little, I worried about losing my mother" (46). Do you really want someone to have to worry and stress over you? Especially your own child? Please, think of what will become of others around you before you take another sip. Sincerely, A Concerned Child

The author of this page is Jessica Wright.

National Institution on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. 2000. National Institutes of Health. 17 February 2008 []
 * Works Cited**

Sebold, Alice. __Lucky__. London: Picador, 1999

The "Woman with Alcohol" image can be found at the website [|worldofstock.com/closeups/PSO1305.php]

The "Children of Alcoholics" image can be found with the article "National Children of Alcoholics Week!" found at []