Kayla

“addicted parents is this: they are behaving like two people. And the child cannot always predict which side of her addicted parent is going to show up. When caught up in their addicted behavior, they forget to parent. They are temporarily asleep on the job, and so can be mean, frightening, immature, selfish or inappropriate. When not caught up in the behavior, the same parent can be kind, supportive, wise, helpful, fun or reassuring. So for the child of a functionally addicted parent, memories of family life are invariably mixed, with positive memories interspersed with sad ones. After a childhood chock full of unpredictable parenting, the adult child of the addict is anxious, worried and secretly insecure.”
― Jonice Webb, Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect