Thousands of teens affected by parents alcohol abuse, charity warns

New statistics from the Children's Society shows that 700 thousand teenagers across the UK are being damaged by their parents' drinking problems and are in desperate need for help.

Kathryn, a mum in Leeds was considered a 'functioning alcoholic' for a number of years and is only now realising the affect she had on her family, after two years of being sober.

Kathryn hopes by sharing her experience, others will be inspired to reach out for support before it spirals out of control.

“I could save another person going through that heart ache”

1 in 10 mum's and dad's are unaware of the damaging effects it has on them and their children today.

Kathryn said: "Predominately they would say that they didn’t consider that I was a very present mother, I was preoccupied and absent. My older daughter, her role she felt was to try and keep everything together. My youngest daughter, she unfortunately went through a phase of self-harming."

"My middle child, she describes it as, well, imagine not being able to have a conversation with your mum for 9 years without her being under the influence. Now that isn’t always drunk, she actually left home on 3 occasions, as a result of my drinking, essentially fended for herself in the world for a couple of years before she came back."

Many teenagers are at a risk of developing mental health problems with the pressures they face at home. This can also lead to issues with them becoming vulnerable, running away and even being excluded from school.

Even though parents maybe seeking help, it can still affect there kids lives throughout the future.

“I’m under no illusion that my drinking has had an impact on my children’s lives and it continues to do so. Although we are in the fortunate position that I’m in recovery. I don’t drink now and so we are repairing some of that damage and we are able to talk about the issues.”

Forward Leeds, an alcohol support charity are wanting to help raise awareness of parental alcohol abuse.

It's not always noticeable for some families as others but the impacts can be the exact same for parents and children.

Bill Owen from the charity said “We really want to raise more awareness around the impact of parental drinking on families. I think like I say, a lot of that, we want to raise awareness of the people who might not see themselves as having a problem with alcohol but getting them to think a little bit about some of the impacts their drinking might have on their parenting and families.”

Next week is Alcohol Awareness Week and Forward Leeds are there to help.

“The purpose of alcohol awareness week this week is really just to start those processes going where people think a bit more about it. If it does have an impact and what that impact might be and how they might be able to stop that getting worse, and kind of reverse some of that.”