If you have an alcoholic parent and have been diagnosed with severe chronic depression how can you make sure your kids do not have these problems?

Answer 1

avoid exposing your children to exhibitors of Alcoholism, foster an open environment for communication purposes to assist in identifying depression signs early, should they occur. this last suggestion is important, should the depression be purely resulting from nature. if that is so, hold no grudges to your parent, and recognise that any such inherited disadvantage is likely to have been diluted through the generation gap between your parent and children. think about what your parent did around you that may have led to your chronic depression - were they not present regularly, were they distant, did they concentrate excessively on their own enjoyment and not confront responsibilities. Provide your children with the opposite and should your depression be a circumstance of nurture, the possibility of it continuing into the lives of your children is significantly reduced. in summary: open communication should chronic depression be affecting your children, and a close relationship to reduce the likelihood of your children feeling displaced. chronic depression, as most psychological disorders, frequently affects once it has been triggered within an individual - acting in a manner whereby singular bouts of depression are less likely to occur therefore mitigates the potential for greater distress being incurred. not the best answer, but i wholly hope you are able to make the best of your situation. remember, you do not wish to control your children as such, merely recognise the affect parental behaviour generates through the parent-child relationship. children see actions at a base level, hence why parents are appreciated as role models, in early childhood development (say 0-11 years) children are extremely impressionable, and thus it of little surprise that it is generally within this period that children are susceptible to disorder and misinterpretation. Alcoholism and chronic depression are often genetic. This doesn't mean that it can't be controlled in your children. The above poster gave good advice regarding children's environment being changed. If the Alcoholic is troublesome, hard on the children and yourself it's best to get out of the relationship taking your children with you. Chronic depression can be resolved as I had it many years ago and was put on an antidepressant med that basically saved my life! To date I've never had to go back on them because I got counseling and learned the technique called 'Cognitive Therapy' which teaches you to deal with your stresses in life with a totally different set of tools. I use this method to this day and it works! My father (his father and brother) were alcoholics (his two sisters were not alcoholics) and on my mother's side her one brother and one sister were alcoholics. Although genetic my brother and I had seen enough to know what alcoholism can do to a family and as much as I loved my father (knowing alcoholism is an illness) it was tough for my brother and I. We vowed to NEVER over-do alcohol and he's 58 and I'm 65 and we have never broken that vow so that goes to show you that you can beat the gene pool! Because of the constant arguing between my parents regarding my father's alcoholism I didn't do well in school for the first three years and neither did my brother. It was probably because we were so concerned that my father might beat my mother up in their rages against each other as well as constantly talking about divorce so my brother and I got little sleep. When I think back now this must have caused some depression in my brother and I, but we didn't know it. It wasn't until I was in my early 30's I had to face up to my ghosts and I went and saw a psychologist and got all my anger, feelings of uselessness during that period of time when I was a child, and then the healing began. I was also given antidepressants for a period of time and have never had to go back to them again. My psychologist gave me the tools with Cognitive Therapy to deal with future stress. It's worked so far! Face the reality of your life, get counseling so you can bounce off your ideas or get ideas from your counselor on how to deal with your problem. Once you have left your alcoholic mate the depression should fade, but it will take time. Discuss different antidepressants with your doctor. Good luck & God Bless