What resources are available for the children of alcoholics and addicts?
Children of alcoholics may benefit from joining Alateen, the youth version of Al-Anon. Both of these groups offer support to the families and friends of alcoholics. Although there is not a youth counterpart for the families and friends of drug addicts, check with your community and local churches to see if there are any support groups for the relatives and friends of someone struggling with addiction in general. In some cases, the children of drug addicts may be allowed to attend Alateen meetings, but the group prefers that only alcohol-related stories be shared at the meetings. Finally, the best resource that the child of an alcoholic or addict may have is you. Children who were isolated from positive adults fared worse than those who had other strong adult role models in their lives. What should I do if I suspect that an alcoholic or addict I know is abusing their child? Technically, you could probably consider the addiction itself to be detrimental to the child because the parent is
