Alcoholic children

Anyone else here start drinking alcohol at an early age, around 10 years old?

No, not all all. Drinking alcohol is harmful to health and that too at this early age can be very dangerous.

A child wouldn't take that into consideration though. From what I've read the stats on this are going up.

yeah, I probably had my first drink when I was around 8 or 9, ironically from my parents.

splitimage

I think it's more of a problem than people think. My dad was an alcoholic so I'm genetically predisposed to that infliction. So I have to be careful now. But when I was 10 I was drinking beer almost everyday, teen years was drinking straight gin or vodka before going to school in the morning.

I had my first drink fairly young. My mother was an alcoholic with few emotional boundaries.

Just turned 12 with my 11 year-old neighbor (her habit), whiskey and iced tea. I didn't get drunk, though. I also took a little vodka in my OJ in the mornings before HS with my friend and we watched Speed Racer. Not drunk either. Just to be a rebel?

I've never had a drinking problem. Never more than a social drinker, one or two drinks.

Only abused shots in the past several years to cope with my hysteria relationship issue. But have stopped that. Didn't work.

That would make it very hard for sure. Did you continue drinking? Drink till you were drunk?

It would be interesting if someone did a poll on this. I bet more people started drinking alcohol at an early age than we think. It would also be interesting if that was broken down into age groups of the person now. Like I am 57, I think alcohol was easier to get then, so I would suspect the rates would be higher for the 50-60 age group, maybe even a wider age range.
Did you guys buy your own alcohol or did you get it from an adults stash?

Adults' stash (who hasn't broken into the parents' liquor cabinet?), then as teens we'd find some adult to buy us Boone's Farm Tickle Pink or get served illegally at a local bar (nobody really cared in the late 70's/early 80's), or we'd get fake IDs at the Flea Market.

Alcohol was the least of the bad influence drugs to be found.

My Dad gave me my first beer when I was a toddler. It was a Budweiser. I remember how special and important I felt that day in the boathouse. I even got to sit on his lap. This was a big deal because he was a raging man and mostly gone off working. He loved scotch and Marlboro reds. That was the first time I thought he might love me too.

<<Alcohol was the least of the bad influence drugs to be found >>
I agree and since we were not driving, well not legally anyway, it was safer.

Wow that is a very special first drink.

I abused alcohol until 1996. I went to AA for a few years until I couldn't get a sitter for my daughter. I don't drink now because of meds and my liver's a little messed up.

But there are still times when I crave a bottle of wine. When I'm making dinner or doing something that stresses me, I want it.

I don't drink anymore either, because of meds like you, but mostly is that I don't want to lose that control. With alcohol being a depressant I don't feel that it would be a wise choice in the point in my life. A lot of triggers I can't control but that one I can. There's a long line of alcoholism in the family, I don't need that battle to fight also.

I agree. I personally wouldn't want my child to do the things that I did but it was part of my coping strategy I guess. I was lucky nothing really bad happened. From what I've read this is becoming more common for kids though and that's scary.

Oh and by the way welcome to PC

I started at 13 myself...my first drink was at 11 but i was like ick....then I started to drinking almost every weekend...then @16 it turned into almost every other day....

I started around eight years old. Didn't have alcohol from thirteen to fourteen. Then I kept drinking from there.

Hope you don't mind if I respond.

My father was the alcoholic but my mom did some binge drinking here and there over the years. We lived at the beach and there would always be people over or staying the weekend. Lots and lots of partying going on. Alcohol was totally normal to me because of that environment. I can remember around kindergarten age going from adult to adult asking if I could taste their drink. They thought it was cute and we played that game over and over ! So I drank young and as I got older I drank often and I drank a lot. Eventually I admitted I'm an alcoholic. Haven't had a drink in soon to be 24 years.

Don't mind at all if you most here. But I have to wonder why you continued to drink, was alcohol always available to you? Congrats on your 24 years sober, that's awesome!

Why do you think there's not much information on this? From looking at this thread it seems to happen more than I first thought.

Trace, what do you mean by "on this?" Drinking young?

Have to hit the hay right now but I'll be around some tomorrow. Goodnight!

Alcoholic children, there's just not many people talking about or much on it.
Sleep well.

I know it's a reality. I mean, how can you be exposed to alcohol abuse and not be affected??

In early recovery I recognized that my father's alcoholism had influenced my attitudes toward the use of alcohol. I also recognized that I had suffered emotional (and some physical and sexual) harm in many various ways as a direct and indirect result. At that time, the best thing I could do for myself was to put that aside and focus on my own recovery. On a deep level I knew I was very angry with him and my mother for setting me up to be in harms way. I had been trying to assign blame for why I drank and it wasn't part of my psyche then to understand that I (and no one else) swallowed alcohol. In other words, no one forced it down my throat, that was MY decision.

About 4 years into recovery I had some rough times and sought out a psychiatrist which really put me on the fast track in coming to terms with the resentments I had in my life. I had to pick it all apart in order to see it for what it was and move on with healing. The guidance I received was immeasurable.

I did attend a few Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA) meetings but I didn't like/relate to them. I was steeped in the toughness of AA meetings at that point and I couldn't relate to the people at those meetings. I tried Alanon meetings for 5 years and found them very helpful along with my psychotherapy to recover from being the victim.

I don't know if this sheds any light in regard to your question but it's what resonates with me. Have a good day and thanks for the response!