Welcome to my ACOA (Adult Children’s of Alcoholics) Blog

To answer the first question: Why and ACOA Blog in the first place? The simple reason is that meetings are no longer held where I live and I would like to attract some like minded people with whom to share recovery.

I'll get to just what he heck and adult-child is for those of you who aren't familiar with the term but first some housekeeping.

By way of disclaimer: This blog is not affiliated with Adult Children Anonymous (ACA) which is a registered trademark. Although I was a very active member until meetings disappeared and thoroughly endorse the group, their efforts and the 12 Step method upon which they were founded. I do hope to secure links to their home page and other ACOA related sites as we go along. In the meantime if you want to learn more about ACA just Google them.

Before I get into who I am and about me I would like to establish a couple of principles for using the blogs discussion feature. It would be good if we can style our discourse in the way of an actual meeting. The most basic principle is respect. As an adult child, our self image has already been profoundly effected by negative interaction with others, beginning with an alcoholic parent or parents. We come to meeting in all shades and flavors of function and dysfunction. In meetings we learn to listen and learn from each other’s strengths, yes we all have strengths, our hope and our recovery. We do not give advice. “You should,” cross talk and is an unwelcome phrase.

Some adult children are angry adults who grew up in less than tolerant situations. While loving you, I will not tolerate, racism, sexism, gay bashing, or other hate speech. That isn’t to say that those topics are taboo. They aren’t. Virtually anything can be discussed in a reasonable fashion.
In the words of a John Prine song, “Little pictures have big ears.” Children or young adults my find their way to this site. Some may even find it useful. Alanon even has a group for children called Ala-Tots. Out of respect for anyone who may find us. Lets keep a civil tongue; no cursing or vulgarity please. No I’m not a prude and yes I’ve been to AA meetings where the talk was pretty rough at times. Everyone there was at least an adult though.

This gets us started then. The 12 Steps were adapted from AA and Alanon. If you have attended either of those programs you will find that the core of recovery is exactly the same. Everyone who has been effected by drugs and alcohol, which is just another drug, is welcome at the table. Our focus is slightly different but you will understand the language.
I don’t have any pretty art, particularly Teddy Bears which were the unofficial ACOA mascot, to begin with but every journey has to have a beginning. We can decorate the room as we go.

Next time I’ll talk about what adult-child means. Then go into the history of the ACOA movement and lead into recovery and some of my own history to boot. With luck this will cross the path of a few fellow travelers and we’ll begin to form a community.