Being brought up in families with alcohol and drug addiction. Survey.

On a forum in Sweden for relatives to substance abusers my collegue Ann-Charlotte Johansson and I  carried out a survey with some interesting results.

Here is a summary, (this was not a scientific survey, but still shows significant signals). 80 people have responded to the survey, mainly women. 44 people of the respondents grew up in a family where one parent or both parents had alcohol or drug problems.

* 44 people say they have grown up with parents with substance abuse including alcohol problems (37 people), alcohol + drug problems (4 people), drugs (1 person), alcohol and medical drugs (2 people).

* 40 of the 44 people say they as children experienced discomfort, fear and threat in situations where parents drank or took other substances. 14 of them responded that they were subjected to violence as a child in connection with the adults' alcohol or drug intake. 25 people say that when they were children they saw others being victims of violence during situations where someone was intoxicated, and that the violence was mostly directed against the mother. In some cases, the violence was also directed against siblings and in 2 cases against the father.

* 27 people who grew up with parents with addiction started relationships later in life with a person with addiction.

* 6 people out of the 44 that grew up with alcohol- or drug abuse in the family developed their own substance abuse later in life.

* 35 people said that when they were children they tried to protect an adult in connection with the adults being drunk or under the influence of drugs.

/Carina
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