bigsombrero

Hi -

I am an alcoholic and often read friends & family posts because I have family in AlAnon and it also helps me to get perspective.

I often have a terrible time understanding who you all are talking about. I have googled the terms you use, and also searched SR (that stands for "Sober Recovery" haha) to see if there is a guide and have not found one.

I see many posts that say "My ABAXH used to do that" or "My EXAH is at it again". Sometimes there are literally 5 or 6 letters in a row. I keep thinking, does this mean "ex-abusive-alcoholic-husband" or what? I have no idea how to get them straight.

Is this AlAnon secret stuff that alcoholics are not privy to? I do not want to impose in any way. Maybe there is an easy link to find this kind of terminology, does anyone have it? It is all Greek to me.

EnnuiStasis

I'm new too, and though there's a list on the sticky "Understanding Acronyms" it doesn't have all of them. Coming from a military background (they love acronymns!) it does make it a little easier to figure out sometimes, but there are still a few that I have no clue about.

lillamy

I don't think there's an established terminology really for some of the acronyms. I use "AXH" for "Addicted eX-Husband" -- I've also seen XAH for the same thing (but to me, he's not an ex-addict, just my ex-husband); an R in the mix means "Recovering"; GF/BF usually means Girlfriend/Boyfriend, etc.

Feel free to ask if you're confused -- as always, "group speak" cements a group together but also has the effect of making people feel like outsiders. And that's not the intent.

Seren

http://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/...-acronyms.html

Here is a post that we placed in the Stickes titled "Understanding Acronyms" for just such an occasion!

Hope this helps! HG

Carol Star

AXH- alcoholic x husband, bf- boyfriend, ad- alcoholic daughter, as- son........rxh-recovering x husband-----me I am an- accaacoar- just kidding- alcholiccodependentaddictin RECOVERY ! opps- forgot child of a- coa.......I am a quadruple winner !

ReflectingOnMe

the ones that got me were dd, ds, dm, dh...d = dear. dear daughter, dear son, dear mother. dear husband..at first I thought it meant deceased..and THAT was a bit confusing ;-)

LexieCat

I like it when we have alcoholics--those who are not in Al-Anon--come over and visit (so long as they are respectful and realize that there is a lot of hurt and anger floating around that should not be taken as personal attacks).

Years ago, one of my favorite meetings I used to go to faithfully, every week, was neither an AA nor an Al-Anon meeting. It could not be called either, because it was a meeting comprising members of both Fellowships. We alternated AA and Al-Anon speakers every other week, and read from the literature accordingly. It was great--we had a few couples there, but also a lot of "solo" Al-Anons and AA members who were there to get a better perspective of the "other side" of the problem and the solution.

I miss that meeting--it was in Colorado Springs when I lived there with my second (still drinking) husband (now ex).