Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families
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Many of us arrived unsure, overwhelmed,
or just curious.You are welcome here.Recovery is possible
Are you an adult child?
Announcements
The latest news from ACA Fellowship
Concept II (two) Fellowship Group Voting & Upcoming Town Halls
Upcoming Town Halls Date: July 18, August 15, September 19, October 17, November 21 Time: 11am ET and 9PM ET Zoom Meeting ID: 914 7666 4800 ...
Inflation Cost Recovery Price Adjustment
Dear ACA Fellowship, We are writing to inform you of an upcoming adjustment to ACA literature and product pricing that will take effect on July 15,...
The 20th Anniversary Big Red Book Is Now Available
For twenty years, the ACA Fellowship Text – known throughout the Fellowship as the Big Red Book – has helped adult children understand their...
The ComLine Blog: Active, Growing, and Open to You
At every meeting, the most powerful story in the room might belong to someone who was never asked to speak. We're asking now. Submit a personal...
Fellowship Group Voting Results are Available
1,068 of 2,596 eligible groups (41%) participated, the highest level in more than 40 years. Groups from 45 countries took part, showing the shared...
ComLine Blog Restart – January 2026!
The ACA ComLine Blog will begin publishing again in the early part of January, with member submissions reopening as part of a relaunch. While the...
You are not alone
Shared Traits of the Adult Child
- We became isolated and afraid of people and authority figures.
- We became approval seekers and lost our identity in the process.
- We are frightened by angry people and any personal criticism.
- We either become alcoholics, marry them or both, or find another compulsive personality such as a workaholic to fulfill our sick abandonment needs.
- We live life from the viewpoint of victims and we are attracted by that weakness in our love and friendship relationships.
- We have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility and it is easier for us to be concerned with others rather than ourselves; this enables us not to look too closely at our own faults, etc.
- We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves instead of giving in to others.
- We became addicted to excitement.
- We confuse love and pity and tend to “love” people we can “pity” and “rescue.”
- We have “stuffed” our feelings from our traumatic childhoods and have lost the ability to feel or express our feelings because it hurts so much (Denial).
- We judge ourselves harshly and have a very low sense of self-esteem.
- We are dependent personalities who are terrified of abandonment and will do anything to hold on to a relationship in order not to experience painful abandonment feelings, which we received from living with sick people who were never there emotionally for us.
- Alcoholism is a family disease; and we became para-alcoholics and took on the characteristics of that disease even though we did not pick up the drink.
- Para-alcoholics are reactors rather than actors.
Events
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ComLine Blog
check latest ComLine Articles
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