Starting A Support Group for Adult Children of Alcoholic's

I am an MA Social Work student and an adult child of an alcoholic mother.

As a support worker and counsellor, I have worked in a therapeutic capacity with HIV positive children and sexually abused adults and have noticed that Young Children & Adult Children of Alcoholics are often over looked both in terms of research and therapeutic services. I find that there is a lack of understanding and support for adult children of alcoholics.

Which is shameful as the dysfunctional family/household does affect the child and later what kind of adult the child becomes.

Therefore, I would like to start a support group based in London (close to Canary Wharf).

The group will offer an opportunity for Adult Children of Alcoholics to express themselves and share feelings in a non-judgmental, empathetic and caring environment with like minded people.
Although, this area of research is undeveloped both in social work and psychology, there are common characteristics that Adult Children of Alcoholics find they often carry into adulthood as the result of their childhood and upbringing:

• Guessing at what normal behavior is.

• Having difficulty following a project through from beginning to end.

• Lying when it would be just as easy to tell the truth.

• Judging themselves without mercy.

• Having difficulty having fun.

• Taking themselves very seriously.

• Having difficulty with intimate relationships.

• Overreacting to changes over which they have no control.

• Constantly seeking approval and affirmation.

• Usually feeling that they are different from other people.

• Extreme responsibility or irresponsibility.

• Extreme loyalty, even in the face of evidence that the loyalty is undeserved.

• Impulsivity - tending to lock themselves into a course of action without giving serious consideration to alternative behaviors or possible consequences. This impulsivity leads to confusion, self-loathing and loss of control over their environment. In addition, they spend an excessive amount of energy cleaning up the mess.

• Fear or anxiety problemsIf you feel that you might benefit please get in touch.

The support group is free of charge and will be limited to a small group. If you would like to join the group, please get in touch via email: adultchildrenofalcoholics@live.co.uk

If you are an adult survivor: Find your inner child and give her love, remember to be as kind as to yourself as you are to others. Good Luck with your life journey.

In addition to starting up the support group, I hope to use this blog as a space to express the pain of growing up with an Alcoholic mother and how to this day my relationships are still affected by my early dysfunctional relationship with my mother and absent father.