You probably picked up your phone, typed something into a search engine, and ended up here. Maybe you typed “how to explain addiction to a child.” Maybe “my child is struggling because of my partner’s drinking.” Maybe something more desperate — something you’d never say out loud.
Whatever brought you here, you already know something that most of the world hasn’t caught up with yet: the children are carrying this too.
They hear the arguments through the bedroom wall. They learn to read a face the moment a parent walks through the door — sober or not, safe or not. They make themselves small, make themselves good, make themselves invisible. They develop a radar for tension that no child should ever need.
In language they understand, with warmth they can feel, from people who know exactly what it’s like to grow up inside someone else’s addiction.
Addiction doesn’t happen to one person. It happens to an entire household — and the smallest people in that household are often the most deeply affected and the least likely to receive any help at all.
The numbers are devastating. An estimated 478,000 children in England are living with an alcohol or drug dependent parent. The NSPCC Helpline was contacted over 11,500 times in 2023/24 by adults concerned about the impact of a parent’s substance use on a child — an average of 31 contacts every single day. Childline delivered over 4,400 counselling sessions in a single year with children worried about a parent’s substance use. Over 72,000 children identified through Children in Need assessments were found to have a parent who misuses alcohol.
And these are only the children who come to someone’s attention. The vast majority never do.
Parental substance misuse features in up to two-thirds of care proceedings where social services have concerns over a child’s welfare. Children exposed to family addiction are significantly more likely to develop anxiety, depression, behavioural difficulties, and addiction themselves. Research into adverse childhood experiences consistently shows a dose-response relationship: the more adversity a child faces, the greater the impact on their physical and mental health across their entire lifetime.
Yet almost every resource — every book, every programme, every pound of funding — is directed at the person using. The children are expected to cope. To be resilient. To somehow make sense of chaos that most adults can’t navigate.
That silence does lasting damage.
The Children’s Companion exists because there is almost nothing on the shelf for these children.
Recovery literature is written for adults. Family support materials assume an adult reader. The handful of children’s books that touch on parental addiction tend to focus narrowly on alcohol, use American references, or treat the subject so delicately that children don’t recognise their own experience in the pages.
What’s missing is a resource that speaks directly to children aged 8–12 — at their developmental level, in their emotional language, about the full range of substances and behaviours they might be living with. A resource that validates the confusing mess of feelings they carry every day: love and anger, loyalty and shame, hope and exhaustion, all tangled together in ways they can’t articulate.
The Children’s Companion was written to be that resource. Not a simplified version of an adult book. Not a leaflet. A purpose-built guide that meets children exactly where they are — and tells them, page after page, that none of this is their fault.
The Children’s Companion follows a gentle three-part journey from confusion to understanding to confidence, with every chapter written directly to the child in warm, honest, age-appropriate language.
The book opens where most children find themselves — confused, frightened, and blaming themselves. "When Someone You Love Is Poorly" explains addiction as an illness in simple, honest terms — why the person can't "just stop," and the difference between the person and the illness. "It's Not Your Fault" addresses the blame children almost always carry head-on, with stories from other children who felt exactly the same way. "The Feelings Jar" helps children name and accept the confusing mix of emotions they experience — anger, sadness, fear, embarrassment, love — and shows them that feeling many things at once is completely normal.
This is the practical heart of the book. "Your Safe People" helps children identify trusted adults they can talk to — inside and outside the family — and shows them how to ask for help. "When Things Feel Scary" provides age-appropriate guidance for difficult moments: what to do during arguments, how to find calm when everything feels chaotic, and who to contact if they feel unsafe. "The Things You Can Control" gently redirects attention to the child's own life — their choices, friendships, interests, routines — because children living with addiction often lose sight of the fact that they matter too.
"Other Children Like You" shares composite stories from children who've been through similar experiences — different family situations, different substances, different circumstances — showing the reader that they're not the only one. "People Who Can Help" provides an age-appropriate overview of support services, demystifies what happens when you talk to a professional, and lists helplines designed specifically for children.
Recovery literature uses frameworks and steps. This book uses something simpler — five core messages woven into every chapter, every story, every illustration:
You didn't cause it. You can't control it. You can't cure it. Nothing you did or didn't do made this happen, and nothing you do or don't do can fix it.
All of them. Even the confusing ones. Even feeling angry at someone you love. Even feeling relieved when they're not there. Every feeling you have makes sense.
Other children go through this too. You might not know who they are, because most children keep it secret — just like you might. But they're out there, and they understand.
With safe people, in your own time. Talking about what's happening at home isn't telling tales and it won't get anyone in trouble. It's looking after yourself — and you deserve to be looked after.
Your needs are important. Your happiness is important. Your life is important — even when everything at home makes you feel like you come last.
These aren’t therapeutic concepts dressed in simpler language. They’re the things that every child living with addiction needs to hear, repeated with warmth and conviction until they believe them.
Whether it's alcohol, cocaine, ketamine, heroin, cannabis, prescription drugs, or something else — if someone in your family has an illness that makes them use substances in a way that hurts the people around them, this book was written for you. You can read it alone, with a trusted adult, or with a counsellor. It belongs to you.
You're getting well, and you want to open the conversation with your children about what happened. This book provides a bridge — a way to talk about it that's honest but age-appropriate, that validates their experience without overwhelming them.
You've been holding everything together. You can see what this is doing to your children but you don't know how to help them make sense of it. This book gives them something you might not have the words for — and the "Note for Grown-Ups" section gives you guidance on how to support them through reading it.
You never expected to be here. This book helps the children in your care understand why their parent can't look after them right now — without blame, without anger, in language that protects their relationship with the absent parent.
You work with children affected by family addiction every day. This book gives you a structured, evidence-informed resource to use in one-to-one or small group settings — something to put in a child's hands that says "someone understands."
A practical tool for direct work with children on child protection plans, children in need, and looked-after children where parental substance misuse is a factor.
A therapeutic resource that complements clinical work — providing age-appropriate psychoeducation and emotional validation between sessions.
Many children affected by family addiction are also young carers. This book acknowledges their reality and helps them understand that caring for a parent doesn't mean carrying responsibility for a parent's illness.
Addiction and domestic abuse frequently co-occur. This book provides substance-specific support for children already engaged with domestic abuse services.
There are resources that touch on children and addiction. But when you look closely at what’s actually available for a child aged 8–12 in the UK whose parent is addicted to ketamine, or cocaine, or prescription painkillers — you find almost nothing.
Here’s what the Children’s Companion provides that existing resources don’t:
Most resources speak to professionals or parents. This book says "you" to the child on every page. It's theirs.
The vast majority of existing children's materials focus exclusively on parental alcohol misuse. The Children's Companion addresses addiction as an illness regardless of substance — because children living with a parent's cocaine addiction deserve the same support as those living with a parent's drinking.
The book validates difficult feelings — including anger, shame, and confusion — without sugar-coating reality or traumatising the reader. Getting this balance right required extensive consultation with child psychologists and professionals working directly with affected children.
Not adapted adult techniques. Age-appropriate exercises including feelings mapping, safe people identification, breathing techniques, calm spaces, and safety planning — all designed for the developmental stage of 8–12 year olds.
British settings, British services, British helplines. References children in the UK will recognise and resources they can actually access.
Not fictional scenarios. Stories built from the experiences of real children affected by family addiction, carefully anonymised and age-appropriately told, so readers see themselves reflected in the pages.
Space for drawing, writing, and reflection built into the design. This isn't a book you read once and put away. It's designed to be kept, returned to, and written in — a companion that grows with the child.
Accessible for developing readers without feeling babyish for older children in the 8–12 range.
Not cartoonish, not clinical. Diverse representation across family structures, ethnicities, and circumstances — because addiction doesn't discriminate, and every child needs to see themselves in these pages.
Space for drawing, writing, and reflection. Feelings wheels, safe people maps, calm space designs. The book invites participation, not just passive reading.
The language is simple enough for younger readers to engage independently, while the emotional content resonates with older children who may be more aware of what's happening.
Designed to be kept in a bedroom drawer, brought to counselling sessions, hidden under a pillow. A book that belongs to the child and survives being needed.
The Children’s Companion is designed to sit alongside the Stepwise Recovery Family Edition — sharing the same philosophy but speaking to fundamentally different developmental stages.
A family using both books together might look like this:
Written directly to the child, meeting them at their developmental level. "It's not your fault. You're not alone."
A comprehensive recovery guide for adult family members affected by addiction. Your recovery, not theirs.
An accessible, cross-substance entry point to recovery for young people questioning their own use.
Available in multiple formats. Choose the one that fits how you prefer to engage with recovery material.
Portable paperback. Annotate, underline, carry to meetings. No digital distractions.
Instant, private access. Searchable, adjustable text size. Read discreetly on any device.
Professional narration for commutes, walks, and sleepless nights.
Print guide plus discussion cards, worksheets, and progress tracking tools.
Print and digital editions available now
If you work with children affected by family addiction, you know the gap in your resources. When a child discloses that a parent is using drugs or drinking too much, you need something to put in their hands — not a leaflet, not a referral form, but something that tells them they’re understood.
The Children’s Companion provides that. Professional packages include:
Recovery saved our lives when we had nothing. We’ll never let cost prevent a child from accessing support.
For every ten guides sold, we donate one free to schools serving disadvantaged communities, children’s social care teams, young carers services, domestic abuse refuges, and families who can’t afford a copy. If you know a child who needs this book and money is a barrier, get in touch. We’ll find a way.
We recommend and support all family recovery fellowships — they save lives. The Family Edition doesn’t replace them. It complements them with modern language, multi-substance coverage, UK-specific resources, and practical tools that go beyond the spiritual programme. Think of it as a companion that helps you understand addiction across all substances while applying recovery principles to your own life — whether you attend meetings or not.
The book is written at a reading age of 8–9, but the concepts are accessible to younger children when read aloud by a trusted adult. The “Note for Grown-Ups” section provides guidance on how to support younger children through the material. For children under 6, we’d recommend working with a professional who specialises in early childhood and family addiction.
Teenagers aged 13 and over would benefit more from the Family Edition (marketed at 13+), which addresses family addiction at an adult developmental level. If your teenager is questioning their own substance use, the Foundations Edition (ages 14–21) may be more appropriate.
The Children’s Companion addresses addiction as an illness regardless of substance — alcohol, cocaine, ketamine, heroin, cannabis, prescription drugs, and others. It also acknowledges that the illness can involve behaviours like gambling. Children living with any form of family addiction will find their experience reflected in these pages.
The book was developed with extensive input from child psychologists and professionals working with affected children. It’s emotionally honest — children know when adults are sugar-coating things — but it never overwhelms or traumatises. The tone is warm, reassuring, and empowering. Children consistently respond better to honest, age-appropriate truth than to silence or evasion.
Both approaches work. Some children will want to read independently — particularly older children or those who find direct conversation difficult. Others will benefit from reading with a trusted adult who can pause, answer questions, and provide reassurance. The “Note for Grown-Ups” section offers guidance on both approaches. A third option is reading with a counsellor or support worker, which can be particularly helpful for children who are already receiving professional support.
Yes. Many parents in recovery want to open the conversation but don’t know where to start. The Children’s Companion provides a structure for that conversation — age-appropriate explanations, validated feelings, and reassurance that the child isn’t to blame. Reading it together can be a powerful step in family healing.
No. The Children’s Companion is a support resource, not a substitute for therapeutic intervention. If a child is showing signs of significant distress — behavioural changes, sleep difficulties, school problems, withdrawal, or expressions of self-harm — professional support should be sought. The book provides a helpful complement to clinical work and can be used in counselling settings.
No. Stepwise Recovery is an independent publication. The Children’s Companion is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by AA, Al-Anon, Alateen, NA, Nar-Anon, or any other recovery organisation. It respects the traditions of established fellowships while serving children who need accessible, substance-neutral support.
Yes. Professional packages are available with discounted pricing, implementation guidance, and session planning materials. Contact us for a tailored quote based on your setting and needs.
The Children’s Companion is in development and launching in 2026. Join the waitlist to secure early access and a launch discount.
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If you’re reading this yourself — maybe over someone’s shoulder, maybe on your own — we want you to know something.
This book was written for you. Not for your mum or dad. Not for your teacher. For you.
We know things at home are hard. We know you worry. We know there are things you don’t tell anyone — not your friends, not your family, not anyone. We know because other children told us, and their stories sounded a lot like yours.
And you can learn how to look after yourself, even when everything else feels out of control.
That’s what this book is for.
You matter more than you know.
