Adult children of alcoholics are people who have grown up in a family affected by one or two parents that were addicted to or chronically abused alcohol. People from these backgrounds become adults who live dysfunctional lives. This article deals with the first step as used by the organisation called 'al-anon' which is a society that teaches people how to recover from the effects of living with one or two parents addicted to alcohol.
So often we ACoA get caught up in feeling all the feelings of the past, that we sometimes get stuck in what once was. In fact, sometimes we get so caught up in how we used to feel, we forget that we aren't powerless anymore. As a recovering ACoA I have learned to embrace my past as a gift. Because I am an ACoA I was forced to look within for answers, and as a result I found the greatest blessings ever. I found--ME.
I was given the gift of abstinence. I say a "gift" because it came about because I was scared. I thought I was dying; literally. I thought I had serious liver damage. I mean, I drank for 30 years. So I stopped. But it turned out to be diverticulitis. Still serious, but not life threatening.
Hey, my name is Crystal and I am an addict. I have been clean for 33 days. I just joined this site and thought I would make a brief post to introduce myself . I have no clue how this works yet.
I never thought i would have to be nice to anyone on the way up....because i was never planning on coming back down. Having been knocked down and climbed back 3 times now it gets harder each time...I appears that i have 4th opportunity to more with my life...first i know longer consider it a climb up....its simply moving on...second no on can take it away from but myself.