I Used to Think It Was Just a Basket
When I first started coming to ACA meetings, I didn’t pay much attention to the basket. It was just part of the closing – something mentioned near the end, along with a few announcements. Whether I was sitting in a room or logging into a meeting online, it felt like...
I Almost Decided ACA Wasn’t for Me Before I Ever Walked In
When I first heard about ACA – Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families – I made a quick decision: this probably didn’t apply to me. Alcohol hadn’t really been part of my home growing up. There wasn’t anything I would have pointed to and said, this is...
Honoring My Character Defects in Step 7
Honestly & Humbly After spending a couple of months working Step 7, I came to a very important realization: humbly asking my Higher Power to remove my shortcomings and to aid in my healing process is more about honestly and non-judgmentally acknowledging where I...
I Used to Think It Had to Be a Big Change
When I first started coming around ACA, I heard people talk about how much their lives had changed. They spoke about breakthroughs, about finally feeling free, about becoming someone they didn’t think they could be. And I remember thinking… that’s great. But I don’t...
What Service Really Means in ACA
When the Word “Service” Feels Big For some of us, the word service can feel intimidating. It may bring to mind responsibility, leadership roles, or expectations we’re not sure we’re ready for. We might picture experienced members running meetings or taking on...
You Won’t Do This Alone
Some of us learned early that we had to handle things on our own. We may not have said it out loud. It may not have even felt like a decision. But somewhere along the way, many of us learned to rely on ourselves first and last. We figured out how to manage, how to...
These Rooms
I don’t mind the musty smells Or the faded carpets, worn and aged from a thousand footsteps. I don’t mind the random assortment of chairs - Some hard (vinal, plastic, and cracked) - Some soft (faded, yellowed, and sunk-in). I don’t mind the faces that sometimes come...
My inner family’s playground
In The Loving Parent Guidebook, page 15, a proposed exercise is to draw a picture of my inner family. Wow! It has been 9 years since I discovered the existence of Inner Child(ren) in 12-Step literature, and I had already tried twice to represent them, but for the time...
The Only One We Can Change is Ourselves.
I recently attended a full day meeting on Boundaries that was sponsored by several groups in Pennsylvania. I had the joy of presenting to the group some of the work and concepts in a draft book on boundaries that a writer group has submitted to the Literature...
Boundaries Workshop at AWC Convention 2026
Boundaries Workshop at AWC Convention 2026 Correction: The original version of this article listed the incorrect workshop time. The correct time is 5:30am-7am ET. We apologize for the confusion. Here’s a sneak peek at the workshop on the new “Freedom through...