Acoa

We hear a lot about dysfunction and how experiences from our childhoods can influence our lives well into adulthood. I think this is true on both the positive and negative sides.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TianDaytonTraumaSurvey ACOAs: Click above to find out which negative and positive qualities you may have developed gro...

In 1980, when the term adult child of alcoholic, ACOA was coined, ACOAs literally came out of the woodwork, testifying in droves to confusion, resentm...

Almost every species of animal engages in some form of play. Play helps all species, animal and human alike, to learn the adaptive behaviors that incr...

My high school motto was "Great in '68". My colleague on the board of The National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA), Peter Palanca's, ...

Children who live with alcoholism or drug addiction need models of what a happy home looks and feels like so they will have something to look forward to as possible for them.

The holidays are a time of heightened reality. A time to reaffirm bonds of friendship and family. The general merriment of the season can make what we...

The recognition that mental health problems are finally understood to have the same if not more impact on quality of life, job performance and relationship health is an idea whose time has finally come.

This false self is also sometimes seen as the "idealized self" or the self through which we operate because our true self just somewhere along the line (usually quite young) felt too weak, inadequate or overwhelmed to function and gain approval in the situation in which it finds itself.

When the attachment with a parent is fraught with fear, the child can become overly preoccupied with getting it right for the parent rather than for themselves.

When we "know too much" and "do too little" discouragement follows.

Research both in animals and in people show that stress or trauma early in life, like the stress of living with addiction or relationship trauma, can hyper-sensitize neurons and receptors.