Martin 1

Michaela Nichelle Martin

Ms.English

Ap language composition

21 november 2018

The Effects of Alcoholism

Alcoholism is an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or the mental illness

and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. At least that's what the dictionary

says. However, That is not what it is to children looking at alcoholism through the body of a

parent.

Alcoholism is seeing smiling faces and happy eyes at two am when all the orange juice is

gone and there's a new bottle in the trash can. It is walking down the stair three hours later when

you see your parent hugging onto the same glass you saw that morning, tighter than they have

ever hugged you. It is wondering if you would be more loved if you had a tattoo of apples,

lemons or snakes on your skin. It is wishing that when the nurse first handed you to your parents

they looked at each other and said “ we should name her Citadelle”

The dictionary will never get that right they will always classify it in thirty words or less.

Yet, how can unseen scars and a ruined childhood be classified in thirty words or less? The

dictionary will never tell you that you will learn your parents' favorite drink by the age of eight

and the way they make it by the age of nine. The dictionary will tell you that alcoholism used to

be called habitual drunkenness or that stems from the Modern Latin word alcoholismums. It

won't tell you that you used to called by your actual name until shots, shots, shots became your

parents favorite game and then all of a sudden your name was too hard to say. It won't tell you

that your anger and rage stems from the same anger and rage that your parents had.
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It is going over to your best friends house down the street, crying, while wondering when

will you become more important than an alcohol bottle.it is getting in trouble and wondering is it

really them speaking or is it Samuel Adams Beer.

Going home to an alcoholic parent is no longer having a parent but being a parent. No

pamphlet can help with that, no book has been titled the adventure of a 13-year-old managing the

weight of schoolwork,friendships, and the pain they feel everytime they see an empty alcohol

bottle thrown away. Nothing can prepare you to fight the lifelong battle of feeling worthless. It is

crazy nightmares were your knight in shining armor it too tipsy to tip over a tower.

Alcoholism still impacts a family even if an alcoholic has taken the alcohol away. It is

still horrible memories of drinks flying in your mother's face, burning cheeks out of rage and

blue and white lights shining through your bedroom window when the cops are were called. It is

still hoping that you won't turn out the same as that alcoholic parent. It is tiptoeing around the

topic 3 years after the alcoholic last had a drink. It is therapy sessions that you hope will help,

crying at night for hating the alcoholic and wishing that somehow the all will make you feel

sane. Unfortunately, the dictionary can't tell you that.