When we educate, we talk about the disease of addiction. We discuss progression, denial, blackouts, personality changes, delusional thinking and relapse. The key is using their terminology. When they are able to fill in the blank, they can make the analogy. Education is information we initiate and intend to bring into their process.
Clarification is a form of education, but it comes in response to conversation.
While we know the dynamics of living with chemical dependency and are knowledgeable about the information that would be helpful for them to understand, we do not want to lose the opportunity to offer information that they solicit directly or indirectly in conversation. Validate their emotional experiences, even those the children are not discussing. The dysfunctional family rule, Don't Talk honestly is characteristic of addicted family life. Children learn at a young age to discount, minimize and rationalize not only their perceptions, but their feelings. As a consequence, they repress many feelings that could ultimately lead to depression or distorted, hurtful and inappropriate expression of feelings.