The child developing mental illness.

The child falling into the same patterns as their parents.

Seeing your parent go through substance abuse at a young age can cause multiple mental illnesses such as, depression, anxiety, etc. Let's dive deeper in what these mental illnesses can do to a child.

According to www.cdc.gov, this is how depression can affect children.

The child could start feeling sad, hopeless, and/or irritable ALL the time.

Showing changes in eating habits. (eating a lot more or a lot less than usual).

Showing changes in sleeping patterns. (sleeping a lot more or less than usual).

Showing self-injury or self-destructive behavior.

having a hard time paying attention

feeling worthless useless or guilty.

After reading these effects on children we can determine that depression can lead to long-term mental damage to the child. Sometimes depression can lead to death in children.

Also, according to www.cdc.gov this is how anxiety can affect children.

Having extreme fear of things (phobias).

Being very afraid of school and other places where there are people (social anxiety)

Being worried about everything, such as the future (general anxiety).

Having panic attacks (panic disorder).

As we have read the affects that anxiety can have on a child, we can determine that this will lead to more fears, and more problems as they grow up.

According to PubMed Central, it tells us, "Without a healthy attachment system, a child is much more venerable to stress and therefore more susceptible to having problems with trauma, anxiety, depression, and other mental illness." After reading this we can understand that parents with substance abuse issues do not have the same relationship as parents without substance abuse issues. We can see that by reading the first line, "Without a healthy attachment system..." to understand this better we can read this part of the article, "Attachment theory posits that the quality of the parents' attachment system that developed in infancy will affect their ability to form healthy attachments to their own children and with other adults." After reading this article we can understand better that parents with substance abuse issues cannot/do not provide healthy attachment systems within their homes. In conclusion, we see how this affects the child and how it can cause mental illness.

In this section, we are going to dive deeper into the influence of a parents' actions on their child.

According to Valley Behavioral Health, we can read this part of the article to determine how the influence of a parents' actions on their child. "Kids whose parents struggle with mental health issues and addiction are more likely to experience their own challenges with depression, anxiety, and addiction. Those who experience abuse may suffer the impact of trauma, becoming hypervigilant, having flashbacks and an exaggerated startle response. Parent mental health and substance abuse patterns directly impact children's wellbeing." In this part of the article, it confirms our claims from the last point, "children developing mental health illness." But we can also see that it says, "Parent mental health and substance abuse patterns directly impact children's wellbeing." Which also describes a child falling into the same patterns as their parents.

In conclusion after reading everything, we can directly see the impact parents struggling with substance abuse has on their child.