How does drug addiction affect kids?
Children of addicted parents can feel intense loneliness and isolation as a result of a parent or both parents focusing their energy on continuing their substance use. As a result, children can develop deep depression and it can lead to self-harming behaviors such as cutting or suicide attempts.
How do drugs affect children’s health?
When a child is born already addicted to drugs, it can cause many physical and developmental issues for them in early life and down the line in adulthood. This includes medical disorders affecting their organs due to delayed development in the womb, but also mental disabilities or underdeveloped cognitive abilities.
How do drugs affect growth and development?
Drug abuse can impact the brain’s ability to function in the short term as well as prevent proper growth and development in the long term. Substance abuse affects teen brain development by: Interfering with neurotransmitters and damaging connections within the brain. Reducing the ability to experience pleasure.
What happens when a child grows up with an addicted parent?
No parent is perfect, but kids who grow up with one or both parents abusing drugs or alcohol are at serious risk of long-term developmental issues and even trauma. Even if the person addicted to drugs or alcohol is a sibling, the effects can be devastating.
How many kids live with a drug addict?
Although very few people are willing to talk about substance abuse and its effects on children, it’s a very real issue — and a widespread one: More than 8.3 million American kids under the age of 18 live with a parent who has struggled with drug or alcohol abuse or dependency in the last year.
How many children live with fathers with drug use disorder?
Among the 538,000 children residing in single-parent households with a parent who had an illicit drug use disorder, 111,000 lived with their fathers and 427,000 lived with their mothers.
How does substance use disorder affect a child’s life?
Children Living with a Parent Who Had a Substance Use Disorder. Previous research has shown that children of parents with an SUD were found to be of lower socioeconomic status and had more difficulties in academic, social, and family functioning when compared with children of parents who do not have an SUD.