Adult Children of Alcoholics

Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA or ACOA) is an organization intended to provide a forum for individuals who desire to recover from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family. ACA membership has few formal requirements. ACA does not receive any outside economic contributions and is supported by donations from its members. The organization is not related to any particular religion and has no political affiliation. Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACA or ACOA) is an organization intended to provide a forum for individuals who desire to recover from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family. ACA membership has few formal requirements. ACA does not receive any outside economic contributions and is supported by donations from its members. The organization is not related to any particular religion and has no political affiliation. ACA/ACOA was originally named 'Post Teen' in Mineola, Long Island in 1973. Tony A. was among its founders. This twelve-step program is incorporated as Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families. The ACA framework is based on the 12 steps and 12 traditions of AA. The organization's name is often ascribed to Janet G. Woititz (c. 1939 - June 7, 1994), an American psychologist and researcher best known for her writings and lectures on the adult children of alcoholic parents, and author of the 1983 book Adult Children of Alcoholics. The term ACoA was also extended to include PTSD by Tian Dayton PhD, specifically in her book The ACoA Trauma Syndrome.In it she describes how pain from childhood emerges and gets played out in adulthood, for the ACoA, as a post traumatic stress reaction. Childhood pain that has remained relatively dormant for decades can be re-stimulated or 'triggered' by the dynamics of intimacy. 'Just as a car backfiring triggers a soldier into unconscious memories of gunfire, when the ACoA grows up and enters the intimate relationships of partnering and parenting, the very vulnerability, dependency and closeness of those relationships can trigger unhealed and unconscious pain from childhood.' During the 1990s, the organization went through rapid growth. In 1989, there were 1,300 ACA meetings and by 2003 there were an estimated 40,000 members of ACA. In 2014, there were 1,300 groups worldwide, about 780 of these in the USA.