Adult-Children-of-Alcoholics

Adult Children of Alcoholics is a 12-Step, 12-Tradition program of women and men who grew up in alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional homes. We meet with each other in a mutually respectful, safe environment and acknowledge our common experiences. We discover how childhood affected us in the past and influences us in the present. The Problem We take positive action. By practicing the 12 Steps, focusing on the solution, and accepting a loving Higher Power of our understanding, we find freedom from the past and a way to improve our lives today.

"The only requirement for membership in ACA is a desire to recover from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family." The Third Tradition of all ACA groups.

This means that anyone who grew up around someone who was a problem drinker or in a family that was dysfunctional for other reasons is welcome at ACA.

Adult Children of Alcoholics

In the book "Adult Children of Alcoholics", Janet Woititz discusses 13 traits that most ACOAs experience to some degree. She has compiled a list of broad generalizations that she has gleaned from meetings with groups of adult children of alcoholics. Woititz says these traits emerge virtually every time adult children of alcoholics get together and discuss their experiences in growing up in alcoholic families.

Says Woititz: ACOAs

guess at what normal behavior is.

have difficulty following a project through from beginning to end.

lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth.

judge themselves without mercy.

have difficulty having fun.

take themselves very seriously.

have difficulty with intimate relationships.

over-react to changes over which they have no control.

constantly seek approval and affirmation.

usually feel that they are different from other people.

are super-responsible or super-irresponsible.

are extremely loyal even in the face of evidence that the loyalty is undeserved.

are impulsive. They tend to lock themselves into a course of action without giving serious consideration to alternative behaviors or possible consequences.