Adult Children of Alcoholics & Other Dysfunctional Families

Do you sometimes feel isolated or uneasy with other people? Have you become a people-pleaser to protect yourself, even though you risk losing your own identity in the process? Do you mistake any personal criticism as a threat? Do you confuse love with pity and tend to love those you think you can rescue? Do you practice some type of addictive behavior or even become addicted to excitement, preferring the familiarity of constant upset to workable relationships? Did you grow up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic parent, a parent who was addicted to something else, or a parent with mental illness?

If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you may be able to appreciate that through ACAODF others like you are learning to free ourselves from the shame and blame that are carry-overs from the past. We are beginning to heal through sharing our experience, strength, and hope with each other. We are learning to take responsibility for our own lives, release our parents from responsibility for our actions today, and release ourselves from taking responsibility for others. We are learning to restructure our thinking and to progress from hurting to healing to helping. We awaken to a sense of wholeness. This is a spiritual, not religious, program.

Our members share the will to change our unhealthy behaviors through reading and discussion at our weekly meetings. Our Tuesday night and Friday noon Meetups follow a standard ACA 12-Step format. For more information, log onto http://www.adultchildren.org/. Our Wednesday night Meetup format is like a book club or reading group with focus on books about and for adult children of alcoholics and other dysfunctional families.

There is no cost for our group except the discounted cost of any book that you wish to purchase through the group.