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Clarissa, age 7, lives in Holland, Michigan. Clarissa lives with her parents and her grandmother. Clarissa enjoys going to school everyday and loves her family.
She wakes up one morning and gets ready for class. She notices some cans of beer next to the trash can. She is confused because she has never seen anyone in her home drink alcohol. She chooses to ignore it and heads off to the bus stop with her mother. When Clarissa returns from home, she sees the same kind of beer cans she saw earlier in the morning on her fathers hand. She ignores and goes to her room.
It has now been 10 days and she has started to realize some type of change to her father. She has seen boxes and boxes of beer cans in the garage. She has also noticed that her dad has not been very present with her and she now believes her father doesn’t love her. One day she sees her father tumbling everywhere around the house with a beer in his hand and becoming very aggressive towards her mom when her mom tells him to stop drinking so much. Clarissa is confused why this is happening.
Clarissa’s father is abusing alcohol. Her father is drinking everyday and has more boxes of beer cans waiting to be finished. Her father is becoming less present in Clarissa’s life and getting defensive when her mother tells him to stop. Alcohol is a substance that can affect someone's life if they never stop drinking. Clarissa’s father has a substance abuse issue with alcohol.