Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoAs)

Alcoholism has a lasting impact on children.

Children don’t outgrow the effects of an alcoholic parent. You accept it, heal from it, and find the road back to you.

If you grew up in an addicted or dysfunctional family, it likely impacted you. The emotions, defense mechanisms, personality traits, and relationship patterns you developed to survive living with an alcoholic parent have followed you into your adult life.

As an adult, you may feel different and disconnected. You sense that something is wrong, but you don’t know what.

It can be a relief to realize that some of your struggles are common to many ACoAs, and you are not alone.

An alcoholic home is chaotic and unpredictable.

Children of alcoholics (ACoAs) often live in fear, walking on eggshells, not knowing what version of their parents they will get. These scared children had to become overly responsible – taking care of themselves and the family and likely missing opportunities to be a kid.

Children who grew up in unpredictable households become adults addicted to the same stress cycle.

There is so much secrecy, denial, and shame that kids start to question their sense of reality and feel incredibly isolated.

After suffering from decades of emotional abandonment, ACoAs get in the habit of abandoning themselves.

It feels impossible to see and honor yourself if you have never felt seen.

You were programmed to worry more about others than yourself as a child because it helped you navigate your childhood world.

You began to try to cure your addicted parent by being a super good kid – you became parentified. Now, as an adult, you search the room for someone in need of your help because it’s what feels familiar.

You’ve become an empath that takes on the feelings of others and can become a magnet for narcissists and toxic relationships.

Most of your relationships usually consist of a lack of trust, fear of intimacy, low self-worth, over responsibility, and feeling like you picked the wrong person over and over.

Suffering in silence and self-blame become natural responses.

Despite the pain your parents caused, you loved them fiercely. When our parents cannot consistently return the love we need, our child brains must somehow explain it to us.

We often think we are at fault – we tell ourselves we are unlovable and not enough for them to stop using. “If my parents loved me more, if I got better grades, if I never cause them stress – then they won’t need to drink.”

ACoAs are the first to minimize their issues and avoid asking for help. We learn at a young age to suffer alone and continue not to reach out for help as adults.

Being an ACoA is an Internal Battle creating struggles with Perfectionism, People-Pleasing, Anxiety, Shame, Difficulty Trusting Yourself and Others, Low Self-Worth, Lack of Boundaries, Feeling Overly Responsible, Being a Caregiver, and Codependency.

Can you relate to these struggles? Imagine what life could be like if you could find healing from the past and feel like you are enough. It’s time to start healing your inner child today.

Become the loving parent you want for yourself.

Through our work together, you can start to heal your inner child and fall in love with the abandoned parts of yourself.

You’ll find ways to reconnect with your authentic self and have more understanding of how your upbringing harms you today. Healing and recovery start with awareness, which is essential for validating your experiences – allowing you to break free of toxic family patterns and let go of past hurts.

You have come here seeking more for yourself. After years of conditioning to believe you were not enough, you are still showing up for yourself. You are strong, brave, and enough.

What would change if you spent some of that energy-saving others to save yourself? Start investing in yourself today by contacting me.