Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families

It's not the bedrock of my routine, but it's certainly part of it.

So is ACOA, which is Adult Child of an Alcoholic.

Mm-hmm.

I find that those meetings are really beneficial for me.

You have individual sessions with your life coaches throughout the week.

We have different groups throughout the week, whether it's parent group, ACOA, at 1.30 and 3.30, and then we go to a meeting at night.

And we put the whole community in the vehicles, and we go to an outside AA, NA, or refuge meeting.

And we're just slowly introducing them to that lifestyle.

So I did discover a lot within Al-Anon.

I also went to ACOA, which was really wild

book, right? The red book.

Yeah.

I mean, you really want to get deep in there.

That thing, it will tear you to shreds, but it's really good work.

Those are some of the heaviest meetings, the ACOA.

I mean, like, yes, it's, it's tough work.

I do.

And it, you know, I'm in AA, but I'm also in ACA, which is Adult Children of Alcoholics, and it digs deeper into, um, it's a 12-step program as well, but it digs deeper into the inner child and the things that happened led you to the belief system you have, which led you to your actions and your consequences.

Yes.

And it started to make me realize, "Oh, that's why I felt that way," or, "That's why I did that," or, "That's how I ended up there." And you start to heal the inner child.

How come he's getting it? But, but my son or my daughter or whatever, or my cousin or whatever it is, can't make this.

And I don't, you know, I never have the answers, but I do, I have experienced strength and hope much like you, but I I can always guide them toward either, you know, ACOA or Al-Anon or something like that.

And some of those conversations are just very sad.

Some are

And then fast forward to 2015, when I was age 52, I got into recovery initially for codependence.

And then I got into another program, which is called Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families, which I didn't know I qualified for because I first heard of it as Adult Children of Alcoholics.

And I don't identify as the child of an alcoholic.

But if you had asked me, did you grow up in a dysfunctional family? I probably would have said yes.

Just

go and do a search for online meetings for CODAs for codependency and not having healthy boundaries and ACOA or ACA for coming from a dysfunctional home and Al-Anon and Alateen is for coming from a dysfunctional partner or parent.

Don't be afraid to look for help outside of your normal channels.

These 12-step programs, they're made up of people who are very like you, who are suffering as well and want to be in control of the solution rather than someone telling them how to do it.

So.

You know, I have certain people in my life who I also joined ACA, which is Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families.

And that was actually, yeah, that, and so I never went to AA, but this is kind of a thing after that.

And I think that most people that do drink have some kind of trauma in their life.