Tag Archives: alcoholism

August 30, 2026 · 1:00 am

Child Abuse, Domestic Violence, and Homelessness

Unknown homeless man, Author Magdalena Roeseler, (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported)

We tend to shun the homeless. We may pity them, may even refer to them using the politically correct term “unhoused individuals” which supposedly preserves their dignity while doing nothing to improve their condition.

But we are likely to feel disgusted or threatened by them, at the same time.

Admittedly, a majority of the homeless do suffer from mental illness and/or addiction [1]. Yet research has consistently shown that there is strong correlation between childhood abuse and later homelessness [2].

And it should not be overlooked that approximately 1/3 of the homeless are families with children (85% of them single mothers) — some 259,473 men, women, and children among the estimated 770,00 homeless in the United States [7].

There is a link not just to child abuse, but to domestic violence here.  Over 92% of homeless mothers with children have experienced severe physical and/or sexual violence during their lifetimes [8].  Moreover, 38% of all domestic violence victims become homeless at some point in their lives [9].

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

The highly respected Adverse Childhood Experiences framework — widely used in public health, medicine, education, and social services — arose from a landmark study by the Centers for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente in the 1990s [3A]. 

Over 17,000 participants were asked about adverse childhood experiences in three categories:  abuse (emotional, physical or sexual); neglect (emotional or physical); and household dysfunction (parental mental illness, parental substance abuse, domestic violence, parental separation or divorce, and parental incarceration).

Among the homeless, 89.8% reported having had 1 or more adverse childhood experiences, and 53.9% reported having had 4 or more [4A].  In the general population, 38-39% reported having had 1 adverse childhood experience, while 3-5% reported having had 4 or more [4B].

Impact of Childhood Trauma

Childhood trauma creates vulnerabilities that may compound with time [3B]:

  • Childhood trauma alters brain structure and function, making it more difficult to manage emotions, and reach sound decisions.  This has the potential to undermine stable housing and employment, as an adult.
  • Childhood trauma damages children’s trust and disrupts the support systems they need to thrive, interfering with their ability to form healthy relationships.  Chaos is normalized.  Self-sabotage becomes an unconscious life strategy. This can result in unstable adult relationships and attraction to abusive partners.  Social isolation can be a maladaptive means of self-protection, leading to avoidance of services like schools, job programs, or shelters that could be of help.
  • Childhood trauma increases the risk of mental illness which, also, has the potential to undermine stable housing and employment.  Those with over 4 adverse childhood experiences are at 4.6 times the risk of depression, and 12 times the risk of suicide, compared with the general population.
  • Childhood trauma greatly increases the risk of alcoholism and drug addiction.  Those with over 4 adverse childhood experience are at over 7 times the risk of alcoholism, and over 10 times the risk of intravenous drug use.  Self-medication becomes addiction.

Foster Care

Not only do the children placed in foster care all too often experience further trauma there, but aging out of foster care puts them at extraordinary risk of homelessness. They simply have no support system.  Between 20-25% of those aging out of foster care are homeless within 4 years; over 50% are homeless by age 26 [3C].

Runaways

This does not take into account the young people who run away from unsafe homes where violence or sexual abuse is ongoing daily [5A].  These become the children of the streets, the easy prey of pimps and sex traffickers [6].

The Root of Homelessness

Early intervention; trauma informed services at school; regular monitoring and support, if children are placed in foster care; provision for adequate housing in Safety/Treatment Plans when children are about to age out of foster care; and trauma-informed healthcare are key to addressing the problem of homelessness at its root [5B].

This is the responsibility of a civilized society. Of course, we may not qualify as that.

“Is this not the fast I [your God] have chosen…To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free…? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?” (Isa. 58: 6-7).

—

[1] Psychiatric News, “Most People Experiencing Homelessness Have Mental Health Disorders, Study Says”, https://alert.psychnews.org/2024/04/most-people-experiencing-homelessness.html.

[2]  Wikipedia, “Youth homelessness”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_homelessness.

[3A, 3B, and 3C]  The Steady Ground, “Childhood Trauma and Adult Homelessness:  The ACEs Connection”, January 2025, https://thesteadyground.org/articles/childhood-trauma-homelessness.html.

[4A and 4B]  The Lancet, “Adverse childhood experiences and homelessness:  advance and aspirations” by Katherine Koh and Ann Montgomery,   https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667%2821%2900210-3/fulltext.

[5A and 5B]  National Crimes Against Children Investigators Assoc. (NCACIA), “Nowhere to Go:  Understanding the Link Between Child Abuse and Homelessness”, https://www.ncacia.org/post/nowhere-to-go-understanding-the-link-between-child-abuse-and-homelessness.

[6]  2026 Calendar-Canada, “What’s the difference between a pimp and a trafficker?”, https://www.calendar-canada.ca/frequently-asked-questions/whats-the-difference-between-a-pimp-and-a-trafficker.

[7] Institute for Children, Poverty, & Homelessness, “The Hidden Homelessness: Families with Children in the US”, August 2025, https://www.icph.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Family-Homelessness-101-National-WEB_8.21.25.pdf.

[8] Green Doors, “Family Homelessness Facts”, https://www.greendoors.org/facts/family-homelessness.php.

[9] American Bar Association, “Five Facts about Domestic and Sexual Violence and Homelessness”, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/domestic_violence/Initiatives/five-for-five/five-facts-homelessness/.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT: https://alawyersprayers.com

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September 29, 2024 · 1:00 am

The Rose Garden, Chapter 7 – The Snow Fort

File:Snow Fort 2009.jpg

Snow fort, Author Andrew Wiseman (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported)

“For He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; Likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength” (Job 37: 6).

Winter followed summer, and one year another.  With time I acquired logic and organizational skills from my grandmother.  From my grandfather, I learned to dance.

My grandfather reveled in music.  Where my grandmother’s taste ran to hymns, he enjoyed livelier music — polkas, waltzes, mazurkas, csárdáses.  I first learned to dance to these standing on the sofa, supported in Grandpa’s arms.

As I grew older, he chided me sternly to dance in a ladylike manner — “Small steps, small steps!” — something I never quite mastered.  Absorbing my grandfather’s passion for life more readily than his instructions on decorum, I was routinely swept away by the music.

Grandpa taught me the difference between pints and quarts, patiently pouring paint from one can to another for me.

Grandpa was, also, the one to part my hair on the left.  I would stand between his knees, as he carefully plied the comb.  “No, not on the right, Annalein.  Never on the right.  Hitler parted his hair on the right.”

It was my father who cut my hair.  Since it was usually kept short, I worried that strangers might mistake me for a boy.

Evenings the family would sit contentedly listening to my grandfather’s large collection of records or watching televised wrestling with him.

Sunday afternoons, we would all listen to Strauss on the radio with its rotating display of vinyl fish.  My sister and I would lie on the living room rug on these afternoons, drawing or coloring as the sun spilled through the windows.

My recollection of Grandpa is of a smiling, mustachioed man in a white cotton undershirt — a glass of beer and a box of crackers at his side. Continue reading →

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May 29, 2022 · 1:00 am

Psychedelics for Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD, Part 2

File:FerndalePoliceStop102415.jpg

Drug paraphernalia including marijuana/cannabis and a methamphetamine pipe, following a police stop in Ferndale, CA, Author Ferndale Police Dept., Source https://kymkemp.com
(PD per California Public Records Act)

We continue our discussion of the risks and benefits of a drug-based psychiatric approach utilizing psychedelics to treat anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Despite growing enthusiasm for the use of psychedelics, the evidence is far from in.

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) – one of the most potent hallucinogens – was studied from the 1950s to 1970s in order to assess behavioral and personality changes, as well as relief from psychiatric symptoms [1][2A].

LSD was originally used in the treatment of anxiety, depression, addiction, and psychosomatic illness.  Readers may recall that the US Army and CIA, also, experimented with LSD as a truth serum.  But most early studies were not performed to today’s standards.

Across 11 randomized-controlled studies (involving a combined total of 567 patients) positive outcomes were observed, particularly with regard to alcoholism [2B].

In rare instances, however, psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD can evoke a lasting psychotic reaction (more frequently in patients with a family history of psychosis) [3A].  Adequate screening of a patient’s vulnerability and prior psychotic episodes before the use of LSD is, therefore, emphasized. Continue reading →

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May 22, 2022 · 1:00 am

Psychedelics for Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD, Part 1

File:Ecstasy monogram.jpg

Ecstacy a/k/a Molly, Author DEA, Source https://www.dea.gov, (PD as work product of federal govt.)

“I am more convinced than ever that psychiatric medications, over the long term, cause net harm.  I wish that weren’t the case, but the evidence just keeps mounting that these drugs, on the whole, worsen long-term outcomes…The inventor of frontal lobotomy…was awarded a Nobel Prize for inventing that surgery, which today we understand as a mutilation.”

-Award-winning science author and journalist, Robert Whitaker [1][2]

Recently, a number of drug trials have been conducted re-assessing the effectiveness of psychedelics for anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

While the results of these trials have been heralded as providing new treatment options for tenacious illnesses, there are serious dangers associated with psychedelics.

Serotonin

Psychedelics act on receptors in the brain for serotonin, a neurotransmitter that effects mood.

There is some thinking that psychedelics enhance the brain’s capacity to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially following injury [3A].  But this hypothesis needs further research.

In the therapeutic setting, psychedelics cause a receptive, dream-like state during which memories are readily accessible [3B].  The theory is that this state opens the door to fresh ideas the therapist can introduce.

Unsupervised use is not recommended. Continue reading →

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June 21, 2020 · 1:00 am

“13 Characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholics” by Buddy T and Dr. Steven Gans

traits of children of alcoholics

Illustration by JR Bee, Verywell

The following is excerpted from “13 Characteristics of Adult Children of Alcoholics” on VeryWellMind.  The full article may be found at:  https://www.verywellmind.com/common-traits-of-adult-children-of-alcoholics-66557.

“If you grew up in an alcoholic home, you’re probably familiar with the feeling of never knowing what to expect from one day to the next.  When one or both parents struggle with addiction, the home environment is predictably unpredictable.  Argument, inconsistency, unreliability, and chaos tend to run rampant…

Continue reading →

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March 18, 2018 · 1:00 am

In the Aftermath of Abuse, Part 2 – Guilt and Shame

“ ‘If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea’ ” (Matt. 18: 6).

It is easier for children to believe they “deserve” the evil done to them, than to take in the fact an adult who should care for them actually has little or no regard for their well-being.

The Statute of Limitations and other obstacles can make it difficult to hold child abusers and molesters accountable legally.  Even with a conviction, however, the feeling of “sinfulness” may rebound from an abuser to his victims.

This in no way implies that they were at fault.  Victims, however, relive the trauma of having been treated as worthless. They are often left with a vague sense of unworthiness that can permeate their lives, and undermine subsequent relationships.

Though this feeling of their own “sinfulness” can be overwhelming to abuse victims, the conclusions they draw from it are not accurate.  Victims did not warrant or invite the abuse.  They remain deserving of love.

The feeling of “sinfulness” is just one of the scars left in the wake of abuse.  Other symptoms can include anxiety, depression, alcohol or drug addiction, eating disorders, and sexual dysfunction.  These behaviors either stem from the pain or are attempts to numb it.  All of them “punish” the victim, who was never at fault in the first place!

The symptoms of abuse may, themselves, become a cause of shame to victims.  Self-destructive behaviors shift the focus away from the abuse, while silently declaring it to the world.  Imperfect as coping mechanisms, these behaviors can have dire consequences but are, in effect, a cry for help.

Originally posted 7/7/13

Of Note:  A Vatican tribunal has found Archbishop Anthony Apuron of Guam guilty of abusing minors and removed him from office.  Apuron was suspended in June 2016 following accusations that he sexually abused altar boys as a parish priest during the 1970s.

Thus far, the Archdiocese of Guam has been named in 159 sex abuse lawsuits involving Apuron and others.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT:  https://alawyersprayers.com

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July 7, 2013 · 1:00 am

In the Aftermath of Abuse, Part 2 – Guilt and Shame

Sexually abused child (1910), Author Dr. P. Langenscheidt, Source “Der Sexualverbrecher” [“The Sexual Criminal”], (PD, published before 1/1/23)

“ ‘If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in Me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea’ ” (Matt. 18: 6).

It is easier for children to believe they “deserve” the evil done to them, than to take in the fact an adult who should care for them actually has little or no regard for their well-being.

The Statute of Limitations and other obstacles can make it difficult to hold child abusers and molesters accountable legally.  Even with a conviction, however, the feeling of “sinfulness” may rebound from an abuser to his victims.

This in no way implies that they were at fault. Victims, however, relive the trauma of having been treated as worthless. They are often left with a vague sense of unworthiness that can permeate their lives, and undermine subsequent relationships.

Though this feeling of their own “sinfulness” can be overwhelming to abuse victims, the conclusions they draw from it are not accurate.  Victims did not warrant or invite the abuse.  They remain deserving of love.

The feeling of “sinfulness” is just one of the scars left in the wake of abuse.  Other symptoms can include anxiety, depression, alcohol or drug addiction, eating disorders, and sexual dysfunction.  These behaviors either stem from the pain or are attempts to numb it.  All of them “punish” the victim, who was never at fault in the first place!

The symptoms of abuse may, themselves, become a cause of shame to victims.  Self-destructive behaviors shift the focus away from the abuse, while silently declaring it to the world.  Imperfect as coping mechanisms, these behaviors can have dire consequences but are, in effect, a cry for help.

FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT:  https://alawyersprayers.com

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