Adult Children Recovery

The ACA Fellowship Text was anonymously written by ACA members and provides guidance on working the 12 -step ACA program, leading to recovery from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family. ACA WSO has adapted AA's steps (with permission from AA) to address the effects of childhood trauma and neglect and offer hope to ACAs worldwide.

Those who have had a narcissistic parent can testify to how damaging it can be to one's psyche. Narcissistic parents lack empathy, show a severe sense of entitlement to micromanage the lives of their children, and often subject their children to neglect, as well as emotional, psychological, and physical abuse. From the unique challenges daughters of narcissistic fathers face to the ways in which adverse childhood experiences affect our brains, Shahida Arabi's insightful essays resonate deeply with those who have been raised by narcissistic parents.

Reframe your past, transform your future, and experience the healing power of CBT—starting from the day you open this book. Have your goals, hopes, and dreams fallen by the wayside over the years? Do you find it hard to stand up for yourself, and are you so tired of trying to fulfill everyone’s demands that you feel burnt out and fatigued—so much so that all you want to do is be alone? Are many of your relationships unfulfilling, and do you constantly give your best self to people who are narcissistic, codependent, selfish, or uncaring? It doesn’t have to be that way—but don’t ...

If only you could control the outcome… No parent imagines their tiny infant growing up to have an addiction. Your once precious child now makes frightening choices and takes terrifying risks. You are worried your son or daughter’s use of drugs or alcohol has reached a sufficient level of concern that you are exploring or have already admitted your adult child to treatment. You are hard-wired as a parent to love, provide, protect, nurture, and rescue your young, just like every other mammal. You’ve ranted and punished, cried and pleaded, and it may have felt like nothing seemed to ...

As a child, we look up to our parents for support, love guidance & protection. They are the guiding wisdom for us to grow healthily in all areas of our lives. However, when your parents are immature. They are incapable of giving you the support you need. Instead, you become the parent they are seeking. Being grown up in this dynamic is a trauma. There are insecurities, a lack of love, and fears of being vulnerable. We develop unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with our emotions and mental beliefs. This could possibly result in a sabotaging life.

Ten years ago, Janet Woititz broke new ground in our understanding of what it is to be an adult child of an alcoholic. Today, she re-examines the movement and its inclusion of adult children from various dysfunctional family backgrounds who share the same characteristics. After more than 10 years of working with ACoAs, she shares the recovery hints that she has found to work. Listen to Adult Children of Alcoholics to see where the journey began and for ideas on where to go from here.

We're all a product of our childhood, and if you're like most people, you have experienced some form of childhood trauma. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are at the root of nearly all mental health disorders. Memories associated with ACEs imprint on a child's brain, and can manifest themselves mentally and physically throughout adulthood. So, how can you begin healing the deep wounds of ACEs and build strength and resilience? In this innovative workbook, trauma specialist Glenn Schiraldi presents practical, evidence-based skills to help you heal from ACEs.

Have you ever heard of your inner child? Well, this is the classic book that started it all. In 1987, Charlie Whitfield's breakthrough concept of the child within - that part of us which is truly alive, energetic, creative. and fulfilled - launched the inner child movement. Healing the Child Within describes how the inner child is lost to trauma and loss, and how by recovering it, we can heal the fear, confusion and unhappiness of adult life.

From the author of the New York Times best seller Adult Children of Alcoholics - a wonderful book that affirms and encourages ACoAs by developing your skills for living. Imagine how good you would feel if: you could stand up for yourself without losing your temper; you could make a decision without second guessing yourself; and you didn't have that sense of worthlessness every time someone criticized you. In Lifeskills for Adult Children you can learn how to do these things and more.

Following deaths, divorces, or the confusion of major relocation, many adults tell their children “don’t feel bad”. In fact, say the authors of the highly praised The Grief Recovery Handbook, feeling bad or sad is precisely the appropriate emotion attached to sad events. Encouraging a child to bypass grief without completion can cause unseen long-term damage.

It is estimated that as many as 34 million people grew up in alcoholic homes. But what about the rest of us? What about families that had no alcoholism, but did have perfectionism, workaholism, compulsive overeating, intimacy problems, depression, problems in expressing feelings, plus all the other personality traits that can produce a family system much like an alcoholic one? Countless millions of us struggle with these kinds of dysfunctions every day, and until very recently we struggled alone.

The Complete ACOA Sourcebook is a compilation of three of Dr. Woititz's classic books, addressing head-on the symptoms of The Adult Children of Alcoholics syndrome and providing strategies for living a normal life as an adult. Listeners will find help for themselves: at home, in intimate relationships, and on the job. They will discover the reasons for the way they think, believe, and feel about themselves; ACOAs often feel isolated, have difficulty in relationships, in the workplace, and in feeling good about themselves.

Adult children of sex addicts (ACSAs) struggle with their sexuality and longings for love. ACSAs have not had their stories told in any significant way in the recovery literature. Intergenerational trauma is transmitted through the legacy of carried sexual shame—the burden of which is not theirs. A Light in the Dark offers hope for unburdening ACSAs by sharing the experiences of others, as well as examining the characteristics, roles and recovery that point toward the freedom and joy they rightfully deserve.

Finding Closure: Giving Yourself What the Narcissist Will Never Give You Closure is often an elusive goal when a toxic family relationship or friendship ends. It is common to feel unsettled, unheard, at loose ends and unfairly treated, and to ruminate over unfinished business. It is vital after going No Contact to learn how to relegate the narcissists to the distant past where they belong, and go on to live a happy, healthy life. No Contact is just the first step on the road to freedom and peace. This book will help you to complete your healing journey, attain closure and move on to the ...

Do you find it hard to trust people? Perhaps you imagine how they might hurt you before you even begin to explore a relationship… Your trust issues have to do with your attachment style, and that’s something that cemented itself long ago… but you’re not attached to this forever: It’s something you can change. Find out how to be in adult relationships that are truly healthy and fulfilling. This engaging therapy workbook for adults is the relationship book you need to get you there.

The trauma and grief of growing up in an alcoholic or addicted family create a lifetime of baggage. If you grew up in an addicted family, the dysfunction that permeated every aspect of your childhood may have seemed "normal", and you may not even realize the level of affect alcohol still has on your adult life - whether or not you drink. If you are one of the millions of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs), the cost of your childhood pain can be unbearable. You may have learned how to "survive", but are you "living" your life?

Growing up in a home where there is addiction or relationship trauma puts a child at great risk for long-term, post-traumatic stress effects that adversely compromise adult relationships. Best-selling author, psychologist, and psychodramatist Tian Dayton examines this trauma through an exploration of the way the brain and body process frightening or painful emotions and experiences in childhood.

If you were raised by emotionally immature parents, you know that unpacking your childhood isn’t easy. You were made to feel like your feelings didn’t matter, while your parent or parents’ feelings were of paramount importance. You may have been neglected emotionally, gaslit, or had your boundaries crossed time and time again. In Emotionally Immature Parents: A Recovery Workbook for Adult Children, you’ll work through all of these experiences and more as you unpack your childhood, and practice creating boundaries with your parents in the present day.

Narcissistic parenting is very damaging and insidious. The parenting is always about the parent and never about the child, never about you. You learn to function, but with many defenses, and often hyper-alert to criticism. This prevents you from living a relaxed joyful life. You become super competent, always able to cope and to please others. In your relationships, this makes you a constant people pleaser, very co-dependent, or else super independent or counter-dependent.

In an all too familiar scenario, played out in millions of homes every day, children who grow up in addictive families abide by certain rules: don't talk, don't trust, don't feel. The rigid survival roles and youthful coping behaviors they take on, such as the responsible child, the adjuster, the placater, and the acting-out child can eventually contribute to problems of depression, loneliness, and addiction in adulthood.