Families in Recovery

The Wahpeton Daily News had the following story about one woman's life coping with family alcoholism, being raped multiple times, and her own addiction and eventual recovery. Warning: it is a tough read, though worth reading to see one of the extreme life paths that result from untreated family alcoholism.

Brenda came from a broken home in south central Minnesota. Her mother and father got divorced due to his alcoholism when Brenda was very young. "I had no sense of how to act around men," Brenda said. Her insecurities with men are also due to her cousin molesting her from the ages of five to eight.Her low self-esteem carried into her teenage years when she was a latchkey kid. Her mother worked at night and went to school during the day. By the age of 14, Brenda went out with her friends and began to drink. She knew her father was an alcoholic, but thought, "I can have one drink or not drink too much and I'll be fine."