Instability is everything; I think that if you get arrested for drugs, you should have your rights as a parent terminated for at least five years. It would give the kid a chance to grow without the chaos of a mentally fragile parent.
I’ve had those and frankly it does horrific damage. It’s like you are sick and tired of all the tension and tiptoeing and all the chaos when they lose it. It’s not sympathy I feel for my parents who were unstable, but exasperation.
Sick and tired of seeing messed up parents mess up their kids.
It’s a terrible situation with no easy solutions.