dolce7dolore

I'm working through my healing process right now, and it's so great. So much better than I ever could imagine. Today when I woke up, I was awake for the first time in my life. That's the first thing that came into my mind "I am awake." It was a great feeling, one that I will fight for. I think the strangest thing for me was to realize that I can talk to the people in my life (the very close few that I have), even my dad. I lived with the man all of my life (my mom is the alcoholic) and I never knew that I could talk to him about my feelings. Turns out that I can, and he always was there for me. I just never knew.

Anyway, that's a lot of rambling. Yesterday I bought a book entitled "The Adult Children of Alcoholics Syndrome" by some well-known psychiatrist. I can relate to nearly every word. It is helping greatly. However, even at Borders, I only found a handful of similar books on the same exact topic, possibly only two others. At my campus book store (I'm in college) no such book was available. I'm just wondering how obscure literature about this subject really is. I am pretty resourceful and have found what I need, but it just makes me sad that there is little available for other people like me (and I know there have got to be other ACoAs at this school, having met two at an Alanon meeting).

Also, I was wondering if there are any well-known, or just known, books out there written by ACoAs and their recovery process.

littlebrr

Hi Dolce

Check out the "stickys" above the forum for some really good reading and recommendations. Those helped me a ton.

I too am the daughter of a mother who is an alcoholic. For me, "Perfect Daughters" by Robert J. Ackerman was a huge help with a ton of very helpful information.

You may want to check out "Co-Dependent No More" by Melody Beattie as well. "The Language of Letting Go" by Beattie is a daily meditation book that will give you tools to use during your journey on a daily basis.

You can get copies of all of these books at Amazon.com and might even be able to find used ones for cheap.

Good luck on your journey. I'm proud of you! Keep it up!

dothi

A good find for me was, "The Complete ACOA Sourcebook: Adult Children of Alcoholics at Home, at Work and in Love" by Janet Woititz and Robert Ackerman.

I'm currently burning through, "Toxic Parents: Overcoming Their Hurtful Legacy and Reclaiming Your Life" by Susan Forward and Craig Buck.

Everyone's experience is so unique, depending on how you were affected and where you are in recovery. Plus this is a topic that carries so much shame. It's not necessarily something you'd mention at lunch with a coworker, know what I mean? Plus this reading material doesn't impress much upon people who haven't walked this path. The majority of people you know have probably don't know this topic exists. So the digging falls to you. Check out the reviews on Amazon to figure which of these books best suit you.

You may also want to check out, "Silently Seduced: When Parents Make Their Children Partners" by Kenneth M. Adams. I found it didn't translate much to my situation, but it did make me more aware of how alcoholism in my family tree really warped some relationships.