"A Child Called It."Dave Pelzer is the survivor of the third worst child abuse case in California history. Dave grew up with his two brothers and both parents. Dave's mother Catherine loved cooking exotic meals for her family and decorating their home in creative and imaginative ways each holiday season. She was full of energy, often taking her children on tours of downtown San Francisco while her husband worked as a firefighter, exposing them to Golden Gate Park and Chinatown. One day, while on a family camping trip, young Dave was watching the sunset when he felt his mother kiss him from behind and look over her shoulder. “I never felt so safe and warm as I did in that moment,” he recalls. But then his mother changed. Slowly at first, but drastically. His behavior became unusual and his alcohol consumption increased sharply. She became easily frustrated, and it seems that her greatest source of frustration was Dave, the loudest and wildest of her children. And so Dave's nightmare began. Pelzer never becomes clear what caused this abrupt change in behavior; most likely he doesn't know and never will. Dave struggles to stay alive in a home where he is treated essentially like an animal and a slave. Catherine found any excuse to punish Dave, while favoring her other children, and her punishments became more and more dangerous as he grew older. In addition to being horribly beaten, Dave was forced to eat his own vomit, swallow soap, ammonia and Clorox. This was just the beginning of his mother's "games." At first, she slapped him, smashed his face into the mirror and made him repeat, "I'm a bad boy!" or make her search for hours for something she had “lost”. But over time, his cruelty grew to include not giving... middle of paper... finding out what is "normal" and what is not because of the unpredictable environment in which they grew up. a tendency to mistreat their children and their spouse. Often, alcoholics come from an abusive home and already have a history of alcoholism in the family. In conclusion, alcohol affects every aspect of your life. It has irreversible effects on the body, particularly on the liver and the brain. Alcohol also has adverse effects on the mind, leading to feelings of inferiority and helplessness. Alcohol and alcoholism also affect the family. There are many treatment programs and support groups that can help you. However, most of the time, alcoholics refuse to admit that they have a problem with their drinking and so the problem goes untreated. It is best to seek help, because living with an alcoholic parent is not only traumatic, but also taxing on the body and mind..