How can a child be used as a wake-up call for the addicted parent
A journalist asks whether children can sometimes provide the wake-up call an addicted parent needs?
Sure, a child can serve as a wake-up call to an addicted parent–particularly if there’s a credible threat of the child being taken away. Since we never know how great the pain a particular addict must endure, this promise (the active addiction must stop, or…) should always be made.
By the way, clue # 10 in the chapter entitled “Poor Judgment” in my book “How to Spot Hidden Alcoholics” is out-of-control children. They are an excellent clue to alcoholism in a parent you may not even know.
Whitney Houston’s mother threatened to take Whitney’s child from her in the intervention that seems to have put Whitney on the right path. Most people would consider such a threat outlandish; the addiction-aware know that it’s an act of love.