IMPACT OF PARENTS' ALCOHOLISM ON CHILDREN CAN BE EQUALLY DAMAGING

Although life with a hardcore drug addict is uniquely torturous, children
living with an alcoholic parent can also suffer deeplyand their numbers
are far greater. According to one federal survey, 22% of the nation's
children are being raised by alcoholics or problem drinkers. Many of these
children have parents who remain fairly functionaloften for years. But
alcoholism, like drug addiction, is a progressive disease that gets worse
without treatment.

Take 12yearold Trent Dick and his 10yearold brother, Monte. Their
mother, Stacy, is a recently recovered alcoholic who underwent
rehabilitation this summer. When Stacy began a sevenmonth drinking binge
last December, Trent and Monte say, they would come home from school, knock
on the door and get no answer. Trent would then look through the apartment
door peephole. There, on the living room floor, would be his mother, a
bottle of Jack Daniels at her side. Once they managed to get inside, the
boys would check their mother's breathing and then, confident she was just
drunk, help each other with their homework and cook dinner, usually a
tortilla with cheese or a can of beans.

Before tucking his little brother into bed, Trent would drape a blanket
over his passedout mother. "We were both fending for ourselves," Trent
says. Trent remembers how he also had to keep a constant grip on the
emergency brake in his mother's car as she zoomed down residential streets
at 80 mph. Last April, on one of her wild rides, the boys were so terrified
that they got out of her car a mile from home. Monte says he kept such
harrowing experiences bottled up inside. "I didn't want them to make fun of
me because my mom's an alcoholic." According to a federal survey, men are
much more likely to be problem drinkers than women; Hispanics are more
often heavy drinkers than whites or blacks. Studies also show that either
because of genetics or environmental factors, children of alcoholics are
two to four times more likely than others to take up the bottle.

Although most children of alcoholics appear to move into productive
adulthood, 41% develop serious problems, one study found.

Groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous have launched weekly Alateen and Alatot
sessions to help youngsters cope with and recover from alcoholdamaged
childhoods.

One summer evening, a dozen 7 and 8yearolds gather in Culver City for
their Alatot meeting while their parents attend an Alcoholics Anonymous
group nearby. Usually, the children recite what has made them happy lately,
and what has made them sad. "We have to convince them it is not their
fault that their parents drink," says counselor Peg Seegers, who runs the
meeting.

The children begin by standing in a circle, holding hands. James, a boy
with dimples and no front teeth, reads from one of the group's lessons. "We
learn to cope with our feelings by sharing them with each other," he says.
The youngsters then sing: "If you are happy and you know it clap your
hands!"

Nathan, 8, sums up the way many of the children here feel. "The worst is
when you get yelled at or beaten, or when your mom or dad is indifferent."

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