ACA - Adult Children of Alcoholics / Dysfunctional Families
While there is a significant population and representation of many other 12 Step Programs online, the ACA program seems to be lacking in its online presence. Recoverychats provides the ACA 12 Step Group with its own separate room, as the nature of the program can be quite different from abstinence-focused programs. This ACA Room is always open and available for chat, except for the hour-or-so blocks on the schedule set aside for the ACA Registered Meetings.
To go right to our ACA Meeting schedule click here.
Getting Started with ACA
"At times adult children have been criticized for blaming their parents. The principles of ACA are not about blame. They are about owning your truth, grieving your losses, and being accountable today for how you live your life."
A Message to those in AA or other Programs
🌿"Is Something Missing in Your Recovery?🌿
Recovering alcoholics owe their lives to the 12 Steps. But over time, many of us battle a vague sense that something is missing in our sobriety. Even as we go to meetings, defects and twisted emotions stubbornly remain. If you grew up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional family, there is hope. Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families is an anonymous 12-Step fellowship that helps you find Emotional Sobriety - the deep healing of mind, body and spirit first envisioned by Bill W. In ACA, children of dysfunctional families experience unconditional self-love, with the help of our Higher Power. We slowly release the distorted thinking and discontent that are legacies of our upbringing.
🌱Your Past Still Matters🌱
Recovering alcoholics focus on living in the present: One Day at a Time. But if your childhood was twisted by the chaos, neglect and abuse that are common in alcoholic households, ignoring the past can be a deadly mistake. Without help, adults with this history get caught in a tragic generational cycle. They experience chronic shame and self-doubt learned in childhood. Many, but not all, become alcoholics or addicts. They struggle with personal relationships, at home and in the workplace. In their pain, they often mistreat those closest to them. These repetitive life patterns are described in Traits of Adult Children. If you identify with these traits, you may be affected by family dysfunction, alcoholism, or a comparable childhood trauma.
🌻ACA Can Help🌻
ACA is not a substitute for alcohol sobriety, but it strengthens our recovery. Bill W., who himself suffered deep childhood trauma, predicted in 1956 that a new fellowship would someday use the 12 Steps and a caring community to heal long-buried "psychic damages." In ACA, much as Bill W. envisioned, we face our past together and stop reenacting what was done to us. Using ACA’s tools and adapted steps, we accept powerlessness over our hurtful past and use a blameless inventory to heal our behavior today. Drawing on our Higher Power, we treat ourselves with love and kindness, and form nurturing relationships with people who value us for who we are.
With Emotional Sobriety, we release our childhood Traits and experience ACA’s 12 Promises. At long last, we know "happy, joyous and free." 🌞 🎈 🦋
Helpful Official ACA Links
- Laundry List Traits
- ACA Promises
- ACA 12 Steps
- ACA 12 Traditions
- Adult Children.org Official Site
- Tony A Workbook PDF
- Helpful Program Slogans
ACA Meetings
We hold registered ACA Meetings in the ACA Room twice EVERY DAY! Noon (12pm) and 8pm EST.
For ACA Room and Chairing Tips go HERE!
We do not hold AA or other meetings here, as you can find those aplenty elsewhere, and some are even in the same chat format as us. Check out our other sites recommended on our Links page.