No Safe Place: Parental Alcoholism and Adolescent Suicide

Abstract

A child growing up in an alcoholic home develops either little self-consolidation (I-ness) and efficacy (I can) or a distorted self (I am insignificant). This results in a desperate search for a soothing-object (We-ness). The sadomasochistic behaviors, which a youth witnesses and is subjected to, become internalized as survival skills, but ultimately fail. These factors set the stage for a destructive modus operandi. When there is peer group attachment pressure, this teen does not find security when questioning, "Who am I?" because there is no "I" and no "We". Instead, this adolescent experiences fear, anxiety, and range, and wonders, "What's going to happen to me?" This propels the youth into frantic behaviors that are meant to confirm a sense of "We-ness" and competence. The result, however, is greater frustration and a mirroring of the opposite. Also, since there is a diminutive capacity for trust and an exiguous chance to reach out or respond to significant others, external soothingness becomes unobtainable. When the adolescent is confronted with aloneness, helplessness, and hopelessness, desperation results and a search for a safe place ensues. Suicide holds such an illusion. It is the embodiment of sadomasochism and permits the cognition "I am capable." A case study illustrates the problems.

Psychiatric Morbidity and Parental Substance Use Disorder

“…Adolescent suicide and parental alcoholism have been associated (7). Men with a multi-generational history of alcoholism manifested a high prevalence of diverse psychiatric conditions (8).…”

The Influences of Parental Alcoholism on Socioemotional Outcomes of Emerging Adults: A Retrospective Approach to Healthy Development

“…So it becomes imperative that children of alcoholics find secure attachments with other people in order to successfully navigate through their adolescence and become self-sufficient young adults. Thus, some of those children are able to fill those feelings of emptiness when they have relationships and make attachments to peers and non-family individuals (Meyer & Phillips, 1990). A study conducted by Cavell, Jones, Runyan, Constantin-Page, and Velasquez (1993), showed that it is not uncommon for children of alcoholics to ultimately be less secure in their relationships if they had an "alcohol-dependent" father, compared to children of similar age who had "non-alcohol-dependent" fathers.…”

“…There are strong connections to drug abuse and suicide attempts in children of alcoholics especially when the mother is the drinking parent (Anda et al, 2002). These self-destructive behaviors are not uncommon consequences of a child who have grown up in an alcoholic home (Meyer & Phillips, 1990); however, one study argued that this behavior was only indicative of children who have had three or more alcoholic family members in their lives (Barnow, Schuckit, Smith, Preuss, & Danko, 2002).…”

“…Alternatively, another study examined alcoholic parents conjunctively and indicated that many children of alcoholics lose their internal identification that they matter as an individual (Meyer & Phillips, 1990). One study found that self views exhibited by children of alcoholics are influenced by the contradictory expectations of their parents (Kelley, Cash, Grant, Miles, & Santos, 2004).…”

“…Black (1981) further acknowledges these challenges for children of alcoholics growing up in an unstable environment. Children of alcoholics frequently receive mixed messages from their parents which can lead to feelings of inadequacy (Meyer & Phillips, 1990) and unworthiness (Rangarajan, 2008).…”