Family Weekend at Hanley Part 2

In family program, you stay with your group almost the entire time (there are 1-2 hours to visit with your loved one). You eat meals with your group and spend the rest of the day together in lectures about addiction.

We learned about the Jellinek Chart:

I thought that was interesting because I related to almost every part of it. It talks about how what happens to the chemically dependent person is mimicked by the family members.

For example:

Increased Tolerance: for the addict this means "needing more of the substance to obtain the desired effect", but for the family member is means "putting up with more of the using behaviors of the addict".

We also learned about enabling and other codependent behaviors. They encouraged us as family members to LET GO of our codependent tendencies.

I think that is partly why I had such a difficult time: letting go (for me) means letting my mom die. I cannot do that. I am not ready to.

High Correlation Between Adult Children of Alcoholics And Nurses

According to GettingThemSober.com:

46% of American households have alcoholism.

Wow, almost HALF by their count.

75-80% of helping professionals in the U.S. under the age of 55 are adult children of alcoholics and 60% of physicians (who are U.S.-born) under the age of 55 are first-born children of alcoholics.

83% of nurses are adult children of alcoholics.

This is a staggeringly high number! Helps explain the stats that follow...

The American Nurses Association states that 20% of nurses have 'substance abuse issues' with an an estimated 40,000 nurses in the U.S. experiencing alcoholism. Binge drinking was highest among oncology, emergency, and critical care nurses.

Odds of marijuana use are 3.5 times higher among emergency nurses. Pediatric and emergency nurses reported a higher use of cocaine than other specialties. Oncology nurses reported the highest overall drug use – for all substances combined.

Looks like growing up in an environment of substance abuse combined with having a genetic predisposition to it, is taking it's toll here. Nursing has traditionally been a profession known for compassion and empathy. Looks like nurses (and doctors) could use a bit of this medicine themselves.

*article here

Wow...this is making me rethink my career path.

What do you think of this? Are children of addicts more likely to take on "helping careers"? Is it an extension of co-dependence? Are we fixers for life?