The effect alcoholic parents can have on children is hugely significant and can affect not only childhood, but later in life too. As a child, it can be incredibly difficult to face up to your parent’s addiction but as you get older, you may feel it necessary, not just for their own health, but for yours and maybe even now for their grandchildren’s sake.

Even as an adult, it can be difficult to try and get your parent or parents addiction help. It takes a lot of courage to confront them, and you can’t just go in willy nilly expecting them to listen and then head straight into rehab. 

Getting treatment is a must though. Especially if you want them to see your own children grow up. So, how do you confront your parents about it?

Find the evidence

You’ll know your parents’ behaviour inside out, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find the evidence that they are suffering through addiction. You may able to identify a series of events that can stem back to childhood, and a timeline can really help a parent realise the effect their addiction has had on those around them.

Involve siblings and loved ones

Don’t confront them on your own. Whoever is suffering addiction, confronting them alone never ends well. Join forces with siblings or other loved ones who also believe they should be doing something about their addiction. It’s strength in numbers. 

Others can also then highlight their experiences with your parent’s addiction and by adding multiple experiences, it can really show the extent of the problem.

Research their options

Understand the options for them. Do your research into local treatment centres and the type of treatments available. Alongside this, do a bit of research into things that can be done at home as well. Activities such as yoga can be great in bringing back control to your life and practices are commonly used in rehab treatment.

By having all the options readily available, it will make the process more understandable for both yourself and your parents.

Build up to confrontation

Don’t confront someone on a whim, set a date, make sure everyone is available and have a clear plan and structure to the confrontation. That will put you in the box seat and prevent the situation from getting out of hand. Anger and emotions can often run high but if you can have a structure, then that will be less likely to happen and you can get your parents the help they need.