Even if the alcoholic is not verbally abusive, the fact that a family member is an alcoholic is in itself a source of emotional trauma for the family member. Often times a lot of soul searching goes on in the family, especially on the part of the parents, as to what they could have done to perpetuate this behavior or what they could have done better to avoid this. Mostly a feeling of guilt is involved, where the family members feel that it is not the alcoholic who is at fault, but the family members themselves who pushed their loved one into acquiring this addiction. Moreover, a sense of shame often engulfs the family members – they are either ashamed of not doing enough to stop their loved one from slipping into alcoholism or are ashamed of having an alcoholic in their midst trying to hide the fact from the public. Perhaps one of the most common found emotions in the children of an alcoholic is resentment. children grew up in an environment where they did not come first for their parent, rather it was the addiction that their parent considered of prime importance. Often such children have a lot of anger build-up inside of them, which may or may not come out. .Some alcoholics do not physically harm anyone around them, yet they are verbally abusive to their family. Such verbal abuse has many detrimental effects. from low self-esteem to low confidence and in extreme cases stuttering, the family of the alcoholic suffers tremendous emotional trauma due to the abuse. It is clear that alcoholism not only affects the alcoholic.