Avoiding difficult emotions
I was looking over the Characteristics of ACOA's in the stickies, and was thinking about these:
2. Adult children of alcoholics have difficulty following a project through from beginning to end.
5. Adult children of alcoholics have difficulty having fun.
6. Adult children of alcoholics take themselves very seriously.
7. Adult children of alcoholics have difficulty with intimate relationships.
Does the ACOA have this weird learned behavior of avoiding strong emotions? Fear is a trigger for drinking - do children learn that strong emotions, including love and responsibility, are to be avoided. Avoid relationships and work = feel less bad??
Or do ACOA's generate strong negative emotional reactions to fear, love, and responsibility that are totally out of proportion to the trigger, making it impossible to move forward?
I am stumbling back and forth between steps 1 and 5, trying to come up with an altogether overly thorough and detailed list of my faults. I am trying to figure out how to describe this procrastination and fear of intimacy, and it seems like they are sort of linked. Or maybe I just enjoy beating myself up.