Chaotic Environments and Adult Children of Alcoholics

Abstract

Go To DigestThe primary goal of this paper is two-fold: to challenge the belief that adult children of alcoholics tend to abuse alcohol as the result of genetic composition, and to show instead evidence that the unpredictable home environment in which alcoholics grow up may be responsible.According to the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, out of the approximately 30 million children of alcoholics in the United States, 1 1 million are believed to be minors (younger than 18 years-old) and the remainder, (almost 20 million) are adult children (http://www.nacoa.nel/pdfs/addicted.pdf). The term Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA) attempts to capture the shared characteristics typically found among those adults who grew up with either or two alcoholic parents (Jones, Perera-Diltz, Sayers, Laux, & Cochrane, 2007). Alcoholic families are driven by a system of rigidity (arbitrary rules, lack of flexibility) where children develop a sense of chronic shock (Kritsberg, 1985). Kritsberg (1985) refers to chronic shock as an overwhelming fear that is never expressed or resolved, which commonly leads to shutting down. Prevented from expressing their emotions, and from learning healthy coping skills in an alcoholic environment, coupled with poor interaction patterns tend to place ACoAs at a higher risk for alcohol abuse (Woititz, 1984). In a move to augment Woititz' s (1984) findings, this essay reviews the risk for alcohol abuse among ACoAs from a complimentary paradigm: growing up in a chaotic environment rather than having alcoholic parents per se may account for the tendency of alcohol abuse among ACoAs.The ACoA SyndromeA chaotic environment is fertile ground for the shared characteristics of ACoAs, known as the ACoA syndrome (Kritsberg, 1985). The ACoA syndrome is a developmental phenomenon shared by most, if not all ACoAs, which describes symptoms and behaviors as the result of their common experience (Kritsberg, 1985, p. 3). A kaleidoscope of characteristics engulf the syndrome, which is mostly grounded in fear: fear of abandonment, fear of intimacy, fear of change, chronic shock (a persistent state of apprehension), fear of making mistakes, feelings of inadequacy (fear of not being good enough) and poor coping skills (Kritsberg, 1985). Ratey and Johnson (1997) explain that syndromes are a constellation of traits that manifest themselves in a continuum depending on the individual's psychological development. In other words, not all ACoAs may present all of the traits, but most ACoAs fall somewhere in the spectrum (Kritsberg, 1985; Woititz, 1984). Kritsberg (1985) insists the ACoA syndrome typically develops in response to a very rigid and chaotic system that may be centered on the alcoholic.Alcohol: A Mood-Altering SubstanceAn alcoholic is a person who abuses alcohol despite the consequences to self, finances, and interpersonal relationships. Alcohol is a depressant whose job is to suppress the central nervous system (CNS) while hijacking the brain's mesolimbic reward system (Dodes, 2002). Encompassing a complex pleasure circuit, the mesolimbic reward system activates the limbic system (the seat of emotion), while at the same time deactivates the prefrontal cortex (the seat of reason) (Dodes, 2002). The dynamics involved in the nerve fibers of the reward pathway are believed to be responsible for the sensation or the feelings of euphoria sought by alcoholics (Heitzeg, Nigg, Yau, Zucker, & Zubieta, 2010, p. 287).Although there may be different models to explain the etiology of substance abuse and addiction, there is a consensus among scholars that alcoholics attempt to alter their moods, such as depression, anxiety, anger, and feelings of inadequacy, through alcohol consumption (Dodes, 2002). Consequences of alcohol abuse are not only evident in the United States, but also are seen in families around the world. European studies focusing on adolescents from Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Turkey, and Denmark show that one member's substance abuse is often influenced by substance-using behaviors of others in the family (Gruber, Celan, Golik-Gruber, Agius, & Murphy, 2007, p. …