Experts: Charlie Sheen's Lifestyle Hurting His Kids, Career Could Be Next

Charlie Sheen is seen here with his two daughters in this 2009 photo. (X17 Online)

Charlie Sheen’s recent hospitalization after reported heavy drug use and porn star parties has some questioning the long-term well-being of his children.

Sheen has two young daughters, aged six and seven, with actress Denise Richards, as well as one-year-old twins with Brooke Mueller. (He also has a grown daughter from a previous relationship.) According to alcohol and drug experts, Sheen’s substance abuse issues severely hamper his abilities as a father.

“It is impossible for Charlie Sheen or anyone for that matter to be any type of parent, whatever, when they are abusing drugs and alcohol, especially to the extent Charlie has been,” co-founder and Director of the Passages Malibu Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center, Pax Prentiss (who does not treat Sheen) told Pop Tarts. "Children are highly influenced by their parents and Charlie needs to set a positive example for his children.”

According to Clare W. Kavin, addiction specialist and administrative director of the drug detoxification program the Waismann Method (she also does not treat Sheen), the actor’s behavior is an indicator that he is “is too unstable at this point, and cannot be responsible for the safety and well being of his kids.”

“Until he finds appropriate treatment he is not capable of taking care of himself or anyone else, especially his young children,” she added.

Moreover, according to Prentiss, the media attention is not good for the children.

“If Charlie’s children are watching this play out in the media, they are being psychologically affected on many fronts,” he said. “Everywhere from trauma to shame, two major components that cause people to become dependent on substances in the first place.”

But while Kavin and Prentiss both argue that Sheen cannot have a relationship with his children in this state, his 25-year-old daughter seems to have turned out just fine. Cassandra Jade Estevez, whose mother was Sheen’s high school girlfriend, recently married her longtime sweetheart last year and does not seek any time in the limelight.

An insider tells Pop Tarts she leads a very “normal” life and had a very stable upbringing under Sheen’s paternal guidance, and that he was very “attentive” as a father and always made it a priority to be there for her and watch her in ice-skating tournaments and other important pursuits.

But while he may have no intention to harm anyone else but himself, Sheen’s self-destructive behavior is preventing him from leading a normal life, with the actor likely remaining “delusional and emotionally detached,” Prentiss said.

So what needs to be done to stop Sheen from continuing on the dangerous path of self-destruction, and potentially harming others along the way?

“What Charlie Sheen desperately needs is to check into a treatment facility that offers an abundance of one-on-one therapy as opposed to group meetings, and must stay in treatment an absolute minimum of 90 days,” Prentiss advocated. “In the past, he has checked into rehab for 30 days in a 12-step environment with a lot of group meetings. There is no way Charlie will discuss his deep-seeded issues in front of a group. Unless you heal the underlying issues his dependence on drugs will never cease.”

Reps for Mueller and Richards did not respond to a request for comment regarding Sheen’s latest incident, although Richards was spotted by his side at the hospital on Thursday.

And luckily for the folks at CBS, who declined to comment on their star’s latest hospitalization, filming for “Two-And-A-Half-Men” was on hiatus this week and was therefore not inconvenienced by his latest trip to Cedars-Sinai. But according to The Hollywood Reporter, the studio executives have been seeking an excuse to send Sheen to rehab for quite some time out of fear the actor will end up dead.

"If he did anything to delay production or put it in jeopardy, they'd shut it down and try to force him to go to rehab," a talent rep close to the show told the entertainment trade.

Production for the hit sitcom is slated to resume on Tuesday, where fans will learn whether the actor and the network will once again go on like this incident never happened.