Alcoholism and family
Drunkenness and alcoholism is the traditional motif of divorce in all developed countries, always ranked first among the causes of divorce. Given to the World Health Organization, alcoholism in different countries suffers from 2 to 10% of the population.
Naturally, household drunkenness and alcoholism are reflected in marital and family life, on family members, on the upbringing of children, as well as on work and social behavior.
Many researchers tend to regard alcoholism as a typical sociopathy, for this disease has a completely different character and has a different origin than all other diseases, including mental diseases.
Alcoholism - a typical drug addiction, formed on the basis of a fairly regular use of alcoholic beverages for a number of years. Chronic alcoholism should be distinguished from domestic drunkenness, which is caused by situational moments, education defects, low culture, moral debauchery. If the measures of social influence are sufficient in the fight against domestic drunkenness, chronic alcoholism, which leads to mental disorders and a number of other diseases, needs medical treatment.
Alcoholism as a drug addiction, according to experts, can arise as a result of alcohol abuse from 1-2 to 15-20 years or more, depending on sex, age, degree of mental and physical disorders, individual characteristics of the person drinking.
Unfortunately, everyday drunkenness is closely connected with the established customs and traditions in holding any celebrations, holidays, with low cultural level of recreation and leisure, with inability of people to occupy themselves. Household drunkenness is also promoted by a high degree of tolerance on the part of the public and all citizens. The danger of alcohol is that it changes the state of mind, supposedly temporarily raising the tone, mood, and later leads to loss of self-control.
In recent decades, significant changes have occurred among people with alcoholism. The main, the overwhelming majority of patients with chronic alcoholism are men, but if in the early XX century.most researchers have noted the rarity and exclusivity of alcoholism among women, in recent years, according to various authors, female alcoholism has become very common. According to GV Morozov and A K. Kachaev, the beginning of systematic abuse of alcohol among women in 29.3% of cases falls on the age of 15 to 23 years and in 53% - from 23 to 30, and in general up to 30 years -in 82%.The fact of rejuvenation of female alcoholism is indicated by other authors( IV Strelchuk, IG Urakov, F. F. Gordeev).
All of them note that the attraction to it in women manifests itself much faster, i.e. in the first 1-3 years of alcohol abuse. At the same time, rapid psychological degradation of the personality is observed. AA Kirpichenko( Vitebsk) reports that 56% of women with alcoholism were divorced;in 60% of cases, the education of women did not exceed 8 classes. Many women were involved in the production, where they had direct access to alcoholic beverages. Often alcoholism was accompanied by sexual promiscuity, lack of due care for children, a violation of the production relationship. EP Sokolova( Moscow) reports that among women with alcoholism, 49% turned out to be workers in the trade of public catering establishments, somehow connected with alcoholic beverages.
The special attention that we pay to female alcoholism is primarily due to the severe consequences for the offspring. In the opinion of Dr. med. Lupandin, alcoholism of mothers leads to especially severe consequences for offspring, which are manifested in growth defects, mental and physical development, craniofacial deformities( microcephaly, short and narrow eye cracks, underdevelopment of the upper and lower jaws).Anomaly of joints, congenital heart defects, anomaly of external genital organs and many other things are also possible.
L. Ya. Visnevskaya and EA Danilova in the brochure "Drink parents - suffer children" cite the data of psychiatrist NN Bodnyanskaya, who examined 114 children from 70 families with drinking parents. In 1/5 of observations at an early age, children noticeably lagged behind in physical development from their peers, were poorly added to the masses, grew weak and painful, later began to walk and talk;8 children were born with ugliness - an excessively small head, underdeveloped limbs. In more than half of the cases, children suffered from some kind of neuropsychological pathology - mental retardation, mental retardation, neuroses, character pathology, epilepsy, etc.
The disorganizing effect of chronic alcoholism on marital life and the upbringing of children is diverse. Firstly, in connection with frequent, regular drinks in the family, a tense, conflict situation is created. Secondly, when alcoholism changes the personality of the patient, there are significant elements of loss of self-control, moral degradation, irresponsibility, disregard for children.
There are cases of senseless cruelty, rudeness, tactlessness, hooliganism on the part of a regularly drinking parent. Psychologically, the situation in the family becomes abnormal, it is characterized by constant quarrels and conflicts, is psychotraumatic for both the other partner and for the children.
"We should not allow," writes V. M. Lupandin, "the negative attitude of the child to himself, which is induced by the conflictful behavior of a drunken father. It is also clear that drunkenness of the father distracts the attention of the mother and the child, deprives the emotional atmosphere of the family of peace that is necessary for the awakened personality of the child. .. ".And further the author continues: "The usual developmental difficulties typical for adolescents, such as increased demands on others, the overthrow of the parents' authority, various complexes, etc., are complicated by the father's alcoholism."
For the stability of the family, an important circumstance is that when household drunkenness and chronic alcoholism increase the unproductive expenses of the family. Between spouses, even with normal relationships, certain periods of living together may have financial disagreements. With systematic domestic drunkenness and chronic alcoholism, such disagreements become particularly acute. It is only natural that, as a result of systematic drunkenness, the family's standard of living is sharply reduced in comparison with the families of non-drinkers.
Another consequence of systematic domestic drunkenness and chronic alcoholism is a rather sharp decrease in male potency and even the appearance of impotence. In an intimate relationship on the part of the alcoholic, aggressiveness, cruelty, rudeness is manifested, which causes negative feelings in women and in some cases can lead, as already noted, to the emergence of frigidity.
In a family where one of the parents regularly drinks, there are no conditions for the normal upbringing and development of children. Children and other family members experience a sharp sense of shame before acquaintances, friends, comrades, neighbors, relatives for a drinking man( woman).As a rule, drunkards and alcoholics commit many antisocial acts( fights, hooliganism, scandals, etc.).
The facts, which are given in the scientific literature, indicate that the patient with alcoholism has a "rich" judicial background, criminal inclinations and they can be considered as potential violators of public order. According to the observations of the doctor V. Peiev( Bulgaria), 24.3% of alcoholics had criminal convictions for theft, hooliganism, rape, murder, 32.4% of the patients were divorced, including 70% of them were divorced before the age of 40.Most of the patients with alcoholism did not engage in general useful work.
As we can see, on the basis of systematic domestic drunkenness and chronic alcoholism there are a number of conditions and circumstances that destroy marriage life. Therefore, it is by no means a coincidence that drunkenness and alcoholism in the hierarchy of motives for divorces constitute the lion's share and are almost always in the first place. It is impossible and difficult to overestimate the negative consequences for the family of this social evil. We do not dwell on the economic consequences of alcoholism and alcoholism for social production, since this is a special topic of research. In addition, there is another aspect of the severe consequences of alcoholism for the family: over time, there is a change in the character of a person suffering from alcoholism, and even, moreover, very often there is a degradation of the person.
It would probably be simplistic and primitive to represent the causes of domestic drunkenness and chronic alcoholism only by the properties and circumstances of the personal moral debauchery of individuals, by the low level of culture, by insufficiently developed spiritual needs, by underdevelopment and other moral and spiritual criteria.
Certainly, these circumstances play a role, but far from it belongs the championship. In the biography of a significant part of alcoholics there was a dysfunctional childhood: a conflict family, pedagogical neglect, frequent cases of cruelty, rudeness, tactlessness on the part of parents. Since childhood, the child has developed and consolidated conflict with his mother or father. As a rule, from early childhood the child felt a lack of love, tenderness, caring, lack of understanding of his specific problems, that is, experienced a number of deep psychological traumas.
In adolescence and adolescence, an unhappy family environment exerts a special influence on the occurrence of addiction to alcohol. As noted by the famous Soviet psychiatrists VA Guriev and V. Ya. Gindikin, the following circumstances that contribute to adolescent alcoholism should be singled out: alcoholism of the father, alcoholism of the mother and her immoral behavior, loss of the father, conflict situation in the family, and neglect associated with previous factors, pedagogical and social neglect.
A large adverse effect on children, adolescents and young people is also provided by living conditions in incomplete or broken families. In these conditions, the social control of the adolescent is greatly hampered, and the general atmosphere of the family also worsens. Of course, the decisive role in family upbringing belongs to the behavior of the parents themselves, the presence or absence of "double morality", cynicism, nihilism, skepticism in relation to the basic values of culture and civilization.
Raises the real behavior of the parents themselves, the image of the thoughts, the way of their life, the relationship to each other. L Makarenko wrote that bad parents "exaggerate the importance of pedagogical conversations", which, in their opinion, "are intended to upset the listener, bring to tears, to moral exhaustion".So, the defects in the upbringing and moral development of children depend on many factors, but among them one should single out: a) the way of life, behavior, moral and cultural level of mother and father;b) the relationship between father and mother;c) their attitude towards their child;d) awareness and understanding of goals, tasks of family education and means, ways to achieve them.
Naturally, father and mother are the first and most persuasive patterns of behavior for the child. It is from the improper behavior of parents that defects in the upbringing and moral development of children occur. According to NG Yakovleva, in most cases teenagers who regularly or frequently use alcohol began to do this in the family, imitating adults and with their permission.
The positive impact of family education in good families is undoubtedly undoubtedly a deeply negative influence in so-called conflict, or problem families. Moreover, the negative features of the nature of the mother and father are somehow transmitted to the child through constant communication in the family, through social imitation.
In the psychiatric and psychological literature, enough facts are accumulated and given convincingly proving that the neuropsychic disorders of children often have as their basis the wrong emotional attitude of the mother( father) to their child.
So, the influence of the family microenvironment on the development of the child's personality is enormous. It can also be purely negative, deforming the child's character traits, which will undoubtedly affect his future, including his family life. Defects of character and moral education can contribute to the emergence of a predilection for alcohol, which arises as a defensive reaction against a sense of inferiority, self-doubt, depression, apathy and pessimism / Disharmonic personality traits inherent in the parent family are fertile ground for addiction to alcohol. As already noted, the influence of alcoholism and domestic drunkenness on marital and family life is enormous. Alcohol abuse of one of the spouses creates an abnormal atmosphere in the family and a constant
is the basis for quarrels, conflicts, scandals. A number of psychotraumatic situations are created for all family members and especially for children. Such an atmosphere has a detrimental effect on the psyche and behavior of children. Sharply increases the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders of children, mother and other family members, increases the likelihood of having children with various abnormalities and anomalies. In families where one of the spouses abuses alcohol, material difficulties arise, the sphere of spiritual interests is gradually narrowing, and cases of immoral behavior increase. Spouses are more and more separated from each other. The emotional, psychological and physiological consequences of alcoholism and drunkenness for the intimate life of the spouses are very harmful. Marriage is subjected to the most difficult test. In such circumstances, one of the spouses decides on the last step - a divorce.
Thus, among the motives of divorce, drunkenness and alcoholism traditionally occupy the first place in all studies conducted by different authors at different times and in different regions of the country. That is why the fight against this social evil is very important both for the strengthening of marriage and family, and for the normal, full-fledged education of the younger generations.
It should involve state and public organizations, all citizens of our society.