Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families

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The latest news from ACA Fellowship

Volunteer Opportunity: Creative Art Director (Digital Content Rebrand)

Jul 1, 2025

Are you a visionary with a flair for design and storytelling? ACA WSO is rebranding our digital newsletters and blogs, and we’re seeking a volunteer...

Information on U.S. Tariff Implications for ACA Book Printing

Jun 28, 2025

Dear Fellowship Members and Delegates, We hope this message finds you well. In response to recent inquiries about future book pricing and potential...

Carrying the Message Around the World

Jun 15, 2025

How WSO Translations Support ACA’s Global Growth At ACA WSO, our mission is to carry the message of recovery and hope to adult children around the...

Fellowship Group Voting Information Sessions

Jun 12, 2025

Dear ACA Community, This letter provides important information about a new Fellowship-Wide Group Voting Process and the 2024 ABC motion that...

WSO Office Video

May 8, 2025

If you are interested to see what the WSO Office looks like as well as meeting the staff please click this link to see the video that was made by...

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.