HOUGHTON — Excessive drinking, whether binge drinking at a Christmas family gathering that ends up in arguments, or during a Sunday football game, can have long-lasting effects on children.

According to the Upper Peninsula Community Health Needs Assessment for 2018, published by the Western UP Health Department, 14% of U.P. adults are heavy drinkers and 12.9 percent are binge drinkers. Drinking too much alcohol is responsible for 88,000 deaths each year, more than half of which are due to binge drinking. About 38 million U.S. adults report binge drinking an average of four times a month, and have an average of eight drinks per binge, yet most binge drinkers are not alcohol-dependent. Both types of excessive alcohol consumption can lead to short- and

long-term adverse health outcomes. Additionally, 6.5% of U.P. adults reported driving in the past month after they had had too much to drink, nearly twice the Michigan rate.

The statistics are worse for the Upper Peninsula, where alcohol-related issues are more than double of those downstate: 14.0% of U.P. adults were heavy drinkers (greater than 60 alcoholic drinks per month for men and greater than 30 for women), compared with 6.9 percent statewide, and 12.9% reported binge drinking in the past month (five drinks for men, or four for women, in a two-hour span).

American Addiction Centers reports that many adult children of alcoholic mothers face adjustment issues throughout their lives. Children with mothers who have an alcohol use disorder may not learn proper coping skills and as a result, are more likely to internalize their problems. This may manifest in different ways, such as becoming withdrawn, depressed, anxious, or inhibited with others. Internalizing problems affect the child’s internal world and experience. They may also externalize their problems and act out, which can look like the following: developing conduct disorders, blaming others, acting aggressively, or becoming hyperactive. Externalizing problems can manifest in delinquency, anger, aggression and legal troubles and as a result, can be considered a public health problem as these externalizations can affect other individuals in society.

AAC also reports that growing up with an alcoholic father can negatively impact children in different ways.

“The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry explains that children can experience increased ongoing emotional difficulties and coping problems, such as guilt, anxiety, embarrassment, problems connecting with others, confusion, anger, and depression,” the report states. They may develop behavioral problems, such as truancy, social withdrawal, suicidal behavior, violent or problematic behaviors like stealing, and experience frequent unexplained physical symptoms like stomachaches or headaches.8 Alcohol use in fathers has also been linked to increased mortality, including suicide and violent death, in children.

According to data provided by the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (an Office of Family Assistance (OFA) funded national resource), around four in five fathers (79 %) reported consuming alcohol in the past 12 months. The same report indicates that 36% of fathers reported binge drinking in the past 30 days. Binge drinking means a person has 5 or more drinks in one session, while 10 % of fathers reported heavy drinking in the past 30 days. Heaving drinking means binge drinking at least five times in the past month.

One misconception that many people dealing with alcoholism have is that their drinking is not affecting anyone else, reports verywellmind.com. That is not true, and children of alcoholic parents can be among those most impacted, VWM states. Verywell Mind, an award-winning resource for reliable, up-to-date information on mental health topics (https://www.verywellmind.com/the-effects-of-parental-alcoholism-on-children-67233).

The VWM article goes on to state that because children may not have had a good example to follow from their childhood and potentially never experienced traditional or harmonious family relationships, adult children of alcoholics may have to guess at what it means to be “normal.”

“Because alcohol use is normalized in families with alcoholism,” the article cautions, “children can often struggle to distinguish between good role models and bad ones.”

After growing up in an atmosphere where denial, lying, and keeping secrets may have been the norm, adult children of alcoholics can develop serious trust problems. Broken promises of the past tell them that trusting someone will backfire on them in the future, the article continues. As a result of trust issues or the lack of self-esteem, adult children of alcoholics will often struggle with romantic relationships or avoid getting close to others.

“If a child’s alcoholic parent was mean or abusive when they were drunk,” stated the article, “adult children can grow up with a fear of all angry people. They may spend their lives avoiding conflict or confrontation of any kind, worrying that it could turn violent.”

In addition to judging themselves too harshly, some adult children of alcoholics constantly seek approval from others. They can become people-pleasers who are crushed if someone is not happy with them and live in fear of any kind of criticism.