This is going to be a long post....sorry :H
Reading stories like that of Angelina Jolie who had her breasts removed after finding she was at a huge risk of developing cancer, I wondered what sort of preventative stuff might be put in place if med researchers find out tomorrow that there is a definite genetic mutation that virtually guarantees *you* (the generic you) will become addicted to alcohol.
For the sake of this hypothetical, let's assume that babies will be tested at birth, and you (the parent) know the outcome of the test. And also assume that there is no vaccination nor will there be one for at least a generation to come. How would you prepare your child for a future of abstinence?
I guess in some ways it's like being diagnosed with diabetes, and lifestyle changes must be made to maintain health. But alcohol especially is a bit different, in that it's a rite of passage into adulthood, and in the early years it's bloody good fun to get pissed with your friends and do crazy stuff. NOBODY thinks alcohol is a problem for them when they're young and fancy-free: it's only looking back that we (those of us who acknowledge our alcoholism) can see our relationship with AL was pretty dysfunctional from the outset. And it's only many years later that we finally get around to trying to rid ourselves of the bloody great gorilla on our backs. (No pissy little monkeys for US, no-sir-ee!)
So what do we teach our children? Do we tell them our own horror stories, do we drag them along to regular Al-Anon meetings from an early age? Do we still socialise with friends who drink non-alcoholically but emphasise to our kids that they can never do that?
In some ways this is personal for me: I come from a long line of alcoholics, and the father of my children was the same. Two of our four kids are alcoholics, and one is definitely at risk of going down the same road. It's now the grandchildren I'm scared for.
They're only little tackers yet, and many years before the issue of drinking will arise. One of my motivations for stopping AL was to show these kids that drinking is NOT the only way that our family interacts. But showing by example alone is not going to have much of an impact when the kids hit the teenage years......
So, apart from imprisoning them in a dungeon when they hit 15 or 16 and forcing them to read testimonials of alcoholics instead of Playboy, :H what else can we do to help future kids avoid going down the same hellish road that we have staggered along?
kambob
Reading stories like that of Angelina Jolie who had her breasts removed after finding she was at a huge risk of developing cancer, I wondered what sort of preventative stuff might be put in place if med researchers find out tomorrow that there is a definite genetic mutation that virtually guarantees *you* (the generic you) will become addicted to alcohol.
For the sake of this hypothetical, let's assume that babies will be tested at birth, and you (the parent) know the outcome of the test. And also assume that there is no vaccination nor will there be one for at least a generation to come. How would you prepare your child for a future of abstinence?
I guess in some ways it's like being diagnosed with diabetes, and lifestyle changes must be made to maintain health. But alcohol especially is a bit different, in that it's a rite of passage into adulthood, and in the early years it's bloody good fun to get pissed with your friends and do crazy stuff. NOBODY thinks alcohol is a problem for them when they're young and fancy-free: it's only looking back that we (those of us who acknowledge our alcoholism) can see our relationship with AL was pretty dysfunctional from the outset. And it's only many years later that we finally get around to trying to rid ourselves of the bloody great gorilla on our backs. (No pissy little monkeys for US, no-sir-ee!)
So what do we teach our children? Do we tell them our own horror stories, do we drag them along to regular Al-Anon meetings from an early age? Do we still socialise with friends who drink non-alcoholically but emphasise to our kids that they can never do that?
In some ways this is personal for me: I come from a long line of alcoholics, and the father of my children was the same. Two of our four kids are alcoholics, and one is definitely at risk of going down the same road. It's now the grandchildren I'm scared for.
They're only little tackers yet, and many years before the issue of drinking will arise. One of my motivations for stopping AL was to show these kids that drinking is NOT the only way that our family interacts. But showing by example alone is not going to have much of an impact when the kids hit the teenage years......
So, apart from imprisoning them in a dungeon when they hit 15 or 16 and forcing them to read testimonials of alcoholics instead of Playboy, :H what else can we do to help future kids avoid going down the same hellish road that we have staggered along?
kambob
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