A Child's Eye View of Meth, or ...

.... why fostering children is not like raising your own.

http://alcoholism.about.com/gi/dynam...a-se061206.php
http://tinyurl.com/k9zdl

.... ""Meth has such a rapid effect that you see parenting just break
down literally," Ostler said. "Families change rapidly in that time and
I think that's very terrifying for children," she said.

Yet despite those conditions, the researchers found that when the
children were asked about "sad or scary times," they talked first or
most often about the experience of losing their parents, even months
later, Haight said. "Most want desperately to be with their families and
feel a great deal of pain and grief over being separated from their
parents."

Another complication is that some of these children had taken on the
role of caring for their parents, as well as younger siblings, when
their parents were under the influence. One child asked who would watch
over her mother when she was "sick," Haight said. They also experience
emotional harm from the stigma of being the children of methamphetamine
users, many of whom face years in prison.

The children often also carry a strong distrust of authority figures,
passed on from their parents as a result of the criminal activity
involved, sometimes reinforced by a meth-induced paranoia. Some have
been actively socialized into a rural drug culture. "It becomes a huge
blockage" to intervention in some cases, Ostler said.

For children raised from an early age with their parents using
methamphetamine, even routine aspects of family life, like regular meal
and bed times, may represent "culture shock," the authors say." ...

Complete article at: http://tinyurl.com/k9zdl



--
"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin (or someone else)