By Dr. Drew Pinsky
As the world mourns the death of pop icon Whitney Houston today, I think it’s also important to keep in mind her 18-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina.
I can only imagine what she’s going through at this time.
As you may recall, Bobbi Kristina was taken to Cedars Sinai Medical Center twice after her mother’s death – once on Saturday night, and again on Sunday morning – to be treated for stress and anxiety, according to a family source.
By now, everyone is aware that her parents, who divorced in 2007, have a drug history. So, I wanted to take a moment to address a few of my concerns.
Whether one or both parents have this thing we call addiction - generally speaking - there’s about a 50-percent probability that the child will inherit it. Just because both parents have it doesn’t increase the risk, but it does make it more difficult to have family support.
Quite often, with an addict, the child becomes the parent. It’s something called "parentalization" of the child. People may be worried that Bobbi Kristina might also have this biological potential that we sometimes shorthand as the gene for addiction. But it doesn’t have to be that. It can be damaging enough just being the child of a parent who has a substance abuse problem.
But understand something; all of this can be very traumatic for a child. The child can become a perfectionist, even a hyper-achiever because he/she can subjugate all of their own feelings. The child pushes them aside because that child learns that their feelings don’t matter. What matters is those feelings of mom, for instance - to make sure she doesn’t keep "using". So they co-dependently focus.
Bobbi Kristina’s father, Bobby Brown, said in statement Wednesday, "We continue to provide love and support to Bobbi Kristina, "She is dealing with the tragedy of her mother's death and would prefer to do it outside of the public eye.” He later said, "We will get through this tragedy as a family."
And that’s exactly what she needs right now. I can only hope that Bobbi Kristina will be well taken care of by those around her to ensure she will make it through this very difficult time.
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