A reflection and Summary of articles on alcoholism and child abuse

Areflection and Summary of articles on alcoholism and child abuse

Childabuse refers to a situation where a parent or a care giver causesinjury, death or emotional harm to a child. Child abuse can be invarious forms for example, sexual abuse, physical or emotional abuseas well as neglect. There are many cases of reported child abuse inthe U.S. every year. Perhaps, most of the cases of child abuse havebeen linked to alcoholism and reports further suggest that most ofthe children who encounter child abuse live in environments wheretheir care givers are probably alcoholics. Alcoholism on the otherside refers to the addiction of alcohol consumption. This paperprovide a summary as well as reflection of three articles about thecharacteristics common in adult children of alcoholics, the economiccost of child abuse and the fetal alcohol syndrome among aboriginalpeople in Canada.

Characteristicscommon in adult children of alcoholics

Anadult child of an alcoholic has many traits that are identified bysuspiciousness. According to the article ‘The laundry list’, mostof them are afraid of the authority and other personal criticism. Inmost cases, their lives are filled with alcoholics and alcoholism tothe point where they even end up marrying alcoholics. Interestingly,they are normally concerned about other people’s feelings andopinions so much to the point of not looking at themselves toidentify their own faults. This is closely related to the point wherethey feel guilty when they stand up for themselves. Personally, Itend to believe that alcoholics have this kind of excitement thatmakes them confuse between love and pity. When non-alcoholics getcloser to them, they refer to it as love when in real sense it couldbe a sign of pity.

Inaddition, alcoholics and children of alcoholics are normally scaredof facing the truth about their own lives and in most cases end up insome form of denial. They judge themselves harshly and tend to have alow sense of esteem. Alcoholism has also been considered as a familydisease in the article. However, the article states that acceptingthe state of alcoholism is the perfect way of moving out of isolationand generally becoming realistic about your own life. In myexperience with alcoholics, I discovered that most of the alcoholicswho identify themselves by their characters and are responsible oftheir own actions, are likely to be happy and satisfied with theirown lives. Personal acceptance reduces the shortcomings and make anindividual to feel less guilty about his or her condition.

Theeconomic cost of child abuse

Childabuse as stated in the paper refers to a situation where a parent ora care giver causes injury, death or emotional harm to a child. Childabuse can be in different forms, it can be at home or away from home,with a stranger or with a well-known person. Child abuse has seriousproblem in the society that needs to be understood. Understanding theeconomic cost of child abuse is all about understanding the cause andworking to treat them rather than focusing only on the consequences.Ideally, child abuse has economic costs that are catered for in manyways. This article suggests that a lot of money has been spent onaddressing cases of child abuse when the same could have been usedfor investment in other areas if child abuse could be addressed witha long-term solution.

Physicalabuse is characterized by extreme acts of violence and aggressionsuch as kicking, hitting or exposing the child in hash conditions.Consequences of physical abuse include damage of soft tissues,fracture of bones and impairment of language among others. Generally,child abuse is mostly characterized by sexual abuse such asinappropriate touching of a child’s or adult’s genitalia, rapeetc. Consequences of child abuse in form of sexual violence include adevelopment of dislike towards sexual activity or an overlysexualized thoughts. Other consequences include early pregnancy,prostitution and even orgasmic disorders.

Significantly,the best way to measure the cost of child abuse is to start bydetermining its prevalence. There are many children who have beenexposed to child abuse but not all cases have been reported or madepublic. Identifying such cases will provide an accurate measure ofchild abuse. On a personal perspective, a lot of people have at leastexperience child abuse at some point in their lives whether physical,sexual or emotional. Physical abuse is the most common form however,the difference is that some people have had too much of it whileothers encountered child abuse on a rare occasion. Apparently, thebest way to collect credible data on child abuse is to collectinformation by use of questionnaires as well as information from thejustice and police departments then compile them together.

Fetalalcohol syndrome among aboriginal people in Canada

Fetalalcohol syndrome has been identified by Aboriginal groups in Canadaas the health and wellness that requires special attention. Accordingto the research presented by this article, most of the Aboriginalpeople living in Canada die earlier than the non-aboriginal people.They also sustain more physical and mental illness than thenon-aboriginal people. Ideally, fetal alcohol syndrome ischaracterized by pre and post natal deficiency such as low birthweight and height. It is an illness that varies from one person tothe other and consists of markers such as facial features that canchange with time. Most of the people diagnosed with fetal alcoholsyndrome have their IQs within the normal range and can go down to amentally retarded range.

Sincethis disease was discovered, so much efforts have been put in placeto control it. In Canada, fetal alcoholic syndrome patients arediagnosed at different rates in the country although most of thediagnostics are done in the western regions. More training andeducation has been provided to the physicians to improve thediagnosis assessment. Perhaps, the country has been hit by somechallenges such as a lack of enough standardized diagnostic toolsaffecting other regions which have less access to the necessaryfacilities.

Consequently,the use of alcohol by the aboriginal people in Canada was introducedby the trade activities with the Europeans. Alcohol was a key tradeitem that was used by European traders who ironically ended upblaming the indigenous people for being alcoholic. Basically, alcoholconsumption can lead to addiction problems. It also leads to povertysince most of the addicts are normally irresponsible. Psychologicaldistress also leads to heavy and irresponsible consumption ofalcohol. Controlling the addiction of alcohol can be difficulttherefore it involves a lot of discipline. The addict will probablyneed appropriate rehabilitation to overcome addiction.

Inconclusion, this paper states that child abuse can be in physical,emotional or in sexual form. All of these forms have severeconsequences such as development of disorders like eating disordersand negative attitude towards sex among others. In addition, alcoholconsumption has been characterized by denial, isolation as well aspsychological distress as seen among the aboriginal people in Canada.Strong measures need to implemented in preventing child abuse as wellas alcoholism to protect the society.