My Life with an Alcoholic Parent (and 6 Addiction Myths)

a post by Ashley Sword for the Tiny Buddha blog



“Be the person who breaks the cycle. If you were judged, choose understanding. If you were rejected, choose acceptance. If you were shamed, choose compassion. Be the person you needed when you were hurting, not the person who hurt you. Vow to be better than what broke you—to heal instead of becoming bitter so you can act from your heart, not your pain.” ~Lori Deschene

Take a moment to look around where you are right now. Look at the people surrounding you, whether you’re in your office, a waiting room, or the line at the post office.

Statistically, one out of every eight American adults in your space is suffering with a substance abuse disorder.
[Looking around my home right now I can see two addicts, my husband and one of his mates, both drinking alcohol. This piece made hard reading but in the end I have chosen to stay with the marriage – I guess after getting on for 40 years it’ a habit!]

This person could be your next-door neighbor, your family doctor, your teacher, or a co-worker.

Out of more than 15 million people struggling, less than 8 percent reportedly have received treatment, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Television shows and movies often lead us to believe that the people who suffer from addiction are the homeless, jobless people on the street who beg for money to feed their habit.

In some circumstances, this unfortunately is true, but I’ve learned that addiction can also be found in the people around you in your day-to-day life. Addiction doesn’t care which zip code you live in or what skin color you have. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in your bank account or what kind of position you hold within a company.

Continue reading

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Relationships among smartphone addiction, anxiety, and family relations

Nazir S. Hawi and Maya Samaha (Notre Dame University-Louaize, Zouk Mikael, Lebanon) published in Behaviour & Information Technology Volume 36 Issue 10 (2017)

Abstract

Smartphones have become ubiquitous in people’s lives to an extent that necessitates the investigation of their negative impact. The scarcity of such investigations triggered our interest in examining the relationships among smartphone addiction, anxiety, and family relations.

A total of 381 university students participated in an online survey composed of demographic information, the Smartphone Addiction Scale – Short Version, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory.

Binary logistic regression analysis and structural equation modelling showed that undergraduate students who had smartphone addiction demonstrated greater odds of having high anxiety compared to those who were not addicted, and students who had high anxiety exhibited greater odds of having clinically significant problems in their family relations.

Nevertheless, path analysis showed that anxiety mediated a positive relationship between smartphone addiction and problematic family relations.

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Mature women and higher education: reconstructing identity and family relationships

an article by Louise Webber (Exeter College in partnership with Plymouth University, Exeter, UK) published in Research in Post-Compulsory Education Volume 20 Issue 2 (2015)

Abstract

Since Edwards’ influential study on mature women students and families in the 1990s, questions have been raised about the effects of Higher Education (HE) on family lives. Edwards maintained that relationships were at risk of breakdown due to the changing identity, increased self-esteem and enhanced confidence levels of women students.

Men were perceived negatively as often being unsupportive of their wives’ return to HE, or threatened by the changes they observed in her.

This paper is based on qualitative research methods focusing on whether HE changes a woman’s identity and reconstructs family relationships. A narrative line of inquiry was used to build detailed stories of a small group of women students and their husbands. The 11 women students were selected from one Foundation degree in Early Years programme at a further education institution.

Data was constructed using mind mapping, focused interviews and a mosaic approach of participant-led research.

Research findings showed that HE had the potential to transform a woman’s identity and position within her family relationships.

The results also demonstrated that family capital, in the form of practical and emotional strategies of support from both husbands and children, played an instrumental part in the women’s success and participation in HE (though this aspect will be discussed in a subsequent paper).

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