Page 7 - My FlipBook

there is substance abuse. Experts note
“It’s not healthy to cover
up pain. You have to kind that children learn from their parents, of-
of gure it out, deal with ten adopting the behaviors they see at
it, face that pain, instead an early age. They are also more likely to
of burying it. . . . That’s have access to illicit substances in their
why people get addicted, homes. In some cases, they develop
because they get addicted unhealthy ways of coping with their par-
to not feeling pain.” 16
ents’ addictions.
— Katie Haupt, a compulsive eater This is what happened to Katie
and shopper and the daughter of a
substance addict Haupt. Her father was addicted to drugs
and alcohol when she was a child. When
under the infl uence, he had violent outbursts that Haupt thought
were a normal part of life. When Haupt grew older, she ate and
shopped compulsively. She explains,

When things got really crazy, my mom would say, “Oh let’s
go shopping.” To escape. To get away from this, let’s cov-
er it up and pretend it’s OK by doing that. It wasn’t until
later that I realized that it’s not healthy to cover up pain.
You have to kind of fi gure it out, deal with it, face that pain,
instead of burying it. . . . That’s why people get addicted,
because they get addicted to not feeling pain. 16

Like Haupt and many others whose parents are addicts, their ex-
periences from childhood often affect their subsequent life choices.

Poor Choices at a Young Age
Anyone can make poor choices, but some teens are more prone
to making poor choices than others. For example, teens who are
less supervised and have parents who are alcoholics might have
more opportunity or inclination to become intoxicated because
they are able to come home unnoticed. Using drugs and engag-
ing in risky behaviors is never advisable, but doing so at a young
age has even more detrimental consequences than it would later
in life. According to the Center on Addiction, one in four Ameri-

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