Parental Substance Abuse essays

Parental Substance Abuse essays The Social influence that is most significant was when growing up as a child; I was exposed to parental substance abuse. By the time I turned ten, my mother was addicted to crack. Before I turned twelve, my mother had a little brother that I had to take care of. As a result, I had to grow up at an early age. I was deprived of my childhood because I had to raise myself as well as my brother. For example, instead of playing hop scotch and double-dutch, I became the responsible child for the environment that I was in. I would direct my brother in the room and close the door because my mother was under the influence, and I did not want my brother to have to endure that. I would ensure that my brother completed his homework. I fed him, instructed him to take a bath, put his night clothes on and then go to bed. This routine became the norms (Myers 2013) for this twelve year old little girl who had a flow chart across her bed room wall marking down what she needed to do. I assumed a lot of responsibility because I needed some type of structure. In addition, I was very frightened for me and my brothers well being, because of the concern that I had pertaining to my mother dying as a result of her addiction to crack. In my eyes, my mother wanted to be drug addict and not a mother to her children. As a result, I adopted dual attitude system.(Myers 2013) The conflict of my attitudes was I disliked my mother because of her addiction, but because she is my mother, I had to respected her enough not to tell her how I really felt. As a result, my social life was limited because I conjured up a low self esteem. (Myers 2013) I avoided bringing home friends or going out in public with my mother. I avoided making friends out of the profound fear of what other parents would say about troubled families. Consequently, learned helplessness (Myers 2013) kicked in because I did not understand my mothers mood and behavior was determined by th...