Hope & Healing IS possible! You CAN do it!
Inspired Hope Counseling provides 100% telehealth in the states of Florida, Missouri, & South Carolina.
|
Adult Children of Alcoholics, Addicts, & Dysfunctional Families
Trait #8: "We became addicted to excitement" "Either way, excitement or fear, adult children use both to mimic the feeling of being alive when in reality they are recreating a scene from their family of origin. Gossip, dramatic scenes, pending financial failure, or failing health are often the turmoil that adult children create in their lives to feel connected to reality. While such behavior is rarely stated as such, these behaviors are an "addiction" to excitement or fear. Because we were raised in chaotic or controlling homes, our internal compass is oriented toward excitement, pain, and shame. This inner world can be described as an "inside drug store". The shelves are stocked with bottles of excitement, toxic shame, self-hate, self-doubt, and stress...As odd as it sounds, we can seek out situations so we can experience a "hit" of one of these inner drugs. We can create chaos to feel excitement. Or, we procrastinate on the job to feel stress. Before ACA, we picked relationships that triggered our childhood unrest because it felt normal to be upset, persecuted, or shamed. During these moments, we thought we felt alive with excitement, but in reality, we were staying just ahead of our aching childhood. Our actions as adults represent our addiction to excitement and a variety of inner drugs created to survive childhood. Many of our repressed feelings have actually been changed into inner drugs that drive us to harm ourselves or others...Without ACA, we can view emotionally healthy people as boring or confusing." - ACA Big Red Book, pgs.15-16 Do you relate to some of this? As a therapist specializing in Adult Children of Alcoholics, Addicts, & Dysfunctional families, we will work together to discover the roots of maladaptive coping patterns, trauma, and shame. Help, hope, and healing are possible! I'm a licensed clinician providing 100% telehealth in the states of Missouri, Florida, & South Carolina. I'd love to hear from you! www.inspiredhope.life Text or call today to setup your 10-15 minute complimentary consultation call: 561-501-1996. I'm cheering for you! Brittni brittni@inspiredhope.life
0 Comments
 This one statement brings SO much freedom & validation to my clients when we start unpacking the traits of Adult Children of Alcoholics, Addicts, & Dysfunctional family units.
See, this "inner critic" is typically the voice of a parent, step-parent, grandparent, or other caregiver present for your growing up, developmental years. If you pause & think about it right now, who is the person in your family of origin who was always passing judgment/criticism/shame to others? It might've sounded something like one, some, or all of these phrases: - You never get it right. - You're stupid. - I wish you were more like _______. - I wish you were never born. - You're an embarrassment to me. - What's wrong with you? - I don't love you. - I love you (but then the person is abusive verbally/emotionally/ physically/etc - so the message of I love you is completely overwritten) - I knew you couldn't do it. - You always mess up. - You're such a baby. - You're weak. - You're _______ (insert any derogatory phrase or curse worse) - No one will love you. - If you only listened to my advice you'd have gotten it right. Or, the other way "inner critic" thoughts are "projected" onto us is if the parent or caregiver fails to provide us with love, tenderness, care, or healthy attention when we were hurting physically or emotionally or when we needed to talk & be open. Look at how you may be judging, criticizing, or shaming/blaming others in your life. Typically, we judge, shame, & criticize others to the degree we do it to ourselves. This can be a sobering thought. The good news? This can change! Hope & healing are possible! I'd love to hear from you if you're interested in confronting your inner critic & gaining internal peace & increased compassion for yourself. It's possible! Call or text me today to schedule your complimentary, consultation call: 561-501-1996. I provide 100% telehealth therapy in the states of Florida, Missouri, & South Carolina! You're worth it & you CAN do it!! I'm cheering for you! - Brittni Facebook & Instagram: @inspiredhopecounseling  This is a great question. The fact that you're asking it means you're curious about the impact of your growing up life on your present day life. It's okay to wonder if help, change, and hope are available.
Awareness that something is off is a great thing. It means we are stepping out of a protective mechanism called denial. When we become aware of something we can then do something we the issue, concern, or problem at hand. I recommend checking out my other blogpost where I talk about the traits of an Adult Child of an Alcoholic, Addict, and/or Dysfunctional family unit: www.inspiredhope.life/inspired-hope-blog If you resonate with some or all of the traits listed, I'd recommend picking up the book: Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Woititz. If you're interested in unpacking how your past family of origin dynamics are playing out in the present, I'd love to complete a complimentary consultation call with you. There is hope and healing is possible! I'm cheering for you! - Brittni ACOA & EMDR Therapist Virtual/Telehealth therapy in Florida Missouri @inspiredhopecounseling  If you haven't yet picked up the ACA Big Red Book (Adult Child of an Alcoholic/Addict/Dysfunctional family), I'd HIGHLY recommend you doing so! It's filled with a weatlh of information that unpacks what the ACA or ACOA traits are and the solutions for overcoming and working through them. It's a powerful resource and I think every ACA individual should read it. With this in mind, here's an excerpt from pg. 22 from the ACA Big Red Book regarding how we "Internalize Our Parents": "Family dysfunction is a disease that affects everyone in the family. Taking a drink is not necessary to be affected. This is an ACA axiom, and it serves as a basis for our First Step. The effects of growing up in a dysfunctional family force us to develop survival traits that are known as The Laundry List (Problem). Since the disease of family dysfunction is generational, these traits also represent the internalization of our parents' behavior. As much as we would like to deny it, we have become our parents... We used denial to forget our pledge and the fact that we had internalized our parents. Denial is the glue that holds together a dysfunctional home. Family secrets, ignored feelings, and predictable chaos are part of a dysfunctional family system. The system allows abuse or other unhealthy behaviors to be tolerated at harmful levels. Through repetition, the abuse is considered normal by those in the family. Because the dysfunction seemed normal or tolerable, the adult child can deny that anything unpleasant happened in childhood. At the same time, there are many adult children who can recount the horrors of their dysfunctional upbringing in great detail. Yet, many do so without feeling or without connecting the deep sense of loss that each event brought. This is a denial of feelings identified in Trait 10 of the The Laundry List (Problem). These forms of denial allow the adult child to sanitize the family story when talking about the growing-up years. Denial can also lead us to believe that we have escaped our family dysfunction when we carried it into adulthood. Step One of the Twelve Steps states that we are "powerless over the effects" of growing up in a dysfunctional family. The Step calls us to admit that our behavior today is grounded in the events that occurred in childhood. Much of that behavior mirrors the actions and thoughts of the dysfunctional parents, grandparents, or caregivers. Once we come out of denial, we realize we have internalized our parents' behavior. We have internalized their perfectionism, control, dishonesty, self-righteousness, rage, pessimism, and judgmentalness..." Did you resonate with some or all of this excerpt? Know that if you did, first of all, you're not alone. And, second of all, there is help available to overcome and work through the past! Overcoming denial is THE hardest part. So, if you're willing to admit this excerpt connects with you, congratulations!! It means you're stepping over denial into truth. This takes extreme courage, humility, and willingness. I remind my clients, if you have these qualities, that's all you need to begin this great healing journey that therapy offers. Are you ready to start the healing journey? Call or text: 561.501.1996 to schedule your complimentary fifteen-minute consultation call. I can't wait to speak with you! 2021 can be your best year yet! There is HOPE! I'm cheering for you! - Brittni brittni@inspiredhope.life Facebook & IG: @inspiredhopecounseling  Happiness is similarly defined in nature to contentment, satisfaction, and cheerfulness. But for most Adult Children of Alcoholics, Addicts, or Dysfunctional Families, experiencing happiness has never happened and seems very much like a lost cause. When we haven't experienced something, we really have no blueprint for how it could be or that it is even a possibility. It seems and feels quite impossible.
I bring good news as we have fully ushered in 2021. Anything truly IS possible! With that said, possibilities arise when we start looking at our options, considering change, and stepping out of denial into the truth of our circumstances. Is this you? Have you been contemplating what you think, feel, need, want, or desire to be the BEST version of yourself? If so, you're in the right place! One of the things I love about being a therapist is helping encourage and support newness in the lives of my clients. Why is hard to make needed changes? Because it involves loss. Loss of the old way of thinking and behaving. When loss is present for us, it naturally trips the trigger for grief in our lives. Grief looks like denial, anger, sadness, bargaining, and depression. These are normal. We are saying goodbye to a lack of discipline, something; saying goodbye to a life lived perhaps in fear, rigidity, perfectionism, control, and any other method of behaving and surviving the harshness that can sometimes be our world. If any of this rings true for you, and you are an Adult Child of an Alcoholic, Addict, and Dysfunctional Family, I'd encourage to purhcase the book pictured above. It's the Big Red Book for ACA - Adult Children of Alcoholics, Addicts, and Dysfunctional Families. I believe it will help validate and normalize some or all of your life experiences, and, it will introduce you to solutions for moving through the hurt, pain, and dysfunction of the past. I'm not saying it will be easy but I promise you it's worth it. I'm cheering for you as you start your journey towards contentment and satisfaction. Healing IS possilbe! If you're looking to begin therapy to address the past in order to heal the present, I'd love to speak with you on a complimentary, fifteen-minute consultation call. Text/call: 561.501.1996. Cheers to change, growth, and healing in 2021! - Brittni Harris, LMHC, EMDR Therapist  Have you ever felt like you revert to a child like state when you have been emotionally triggered in the present? When a person, place, or situation seemingly sends you back in time to feeling helpless, confused, trapped, or powerless? If so, this typically indicates there are unresolved childhood wounds causing a "reaction" in the present.
This book, Healing the Child Within, is an excellent resource for any adult child of an alcoholic, addict, or dysfunctional family unit. This book helps unpack how when trauma, pain, and wounds go unaddressed from childhood, deep pockets of emotional turmoil are created. Here's an excerpt from the book: "When this Child Within is not nurtured or allowed freedom of expression, a false or co-dependent self emerges. We begin to live our lives from a victim stance, and experience difficulties in resolving emotional traumas". Struggling with decision making or codependency is not something to be ashamed of; in fact, it's typically a sign of great survival strength. You survived, you endured your childhood/adolescence, now, it's time to learn how to let go of anything that is not moving you towards your goals. This is possible! If this sounds like something you'd like to explore in your own life, I'd love to journey with you towards healing and wholeness. Reach out for complimentary consultation. I'm cheering for you! - Brittni brittni@inspiredhope.life  I wholeheartedly adore the work and writings done by one of my favorite authors, Brene Brown - to use a little play on words if you're familiar with her work on "Wholehearted" living.
In her book, "The Gifts of Imperfection", she highlights the importance of surrendering our need for control, our need for attaining the status of perfection, and ultimately surrendering the facades we've carried around as a survival tool to help control how other people perceive us. Why is this important you ask? Well, for most adult children of alcoholics, addicts, and dysfunctional families, perfectionism has been a survival tool, or survival coping strategy, to help protect against rejection and abandonment. It's quite the survival skill; it can be downright overwhelming to confront and change. But, like it's said in the rooms of many fellowship programs, when the pain gets great enough, and, it will at some point, carrying the weight of this burden called perfectionism, you'll find yourself motivated for change. This is why Brene's book is so powerful. It helps explain the "why" behind the "what" of perfectionism. It helps make sense of this characteristic that most children of dysfunctional families have had to fully embrace to survive emotionally. Like I always say, we give honor to these survival skills; however, as an adult, we get to make new, healthy decisions for ourselves. This includes letting go of patterns of behaving that no longer serve us. The good news, there really is a gift in the imperfection. It's a gift to be able to let things go, let people go, and simply focus on the present. On simplicity, on our own thoughts, feelings, needs, and desires. Here's a quote from Brene's book, "The Gifts of Imperfection": "Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do". Are you ready to begin the journey of owning your story and loving yourself? If so, I'd love to help you navigate your healing journey. And, in the meantime, go pick up the book "The Gifts of Imperfection". You'll be glad you did! - Brittni brittni@inspiredhope.life 561.501.1996  Adult children of alcoholics, addicts, or dysfunctional families often find themselves in unhealthy, toxic relationships continuously; it also feels like a mystery. Like, why does this keep happening?
In her book, “Adult Children of Alcoholics”, Janet Geringer Woititz suggests that you ask these specific questions when you find yourself in a dysfunctional or toxic relationship (be it with family, friends, co-workers, etc)
Janet explains it like this in her book, "The answers to these questions are often quite surprising. You may find that a person represents someone else in your life. Your lover may be very much like your alcoholic (or dysfunctional) parent was when you were growing up. You may be repeating a pattern because it is familiar. You may not have broken early ties and may be setting yourself up again." [Excerpt from the book Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Geringer Woititz] I highly recommend this book if you grew up in any type of dysfunctional household. It doesn't just apply for children who grew up with alcoholics or addicts. Any dysfunction produces the same/similar character traits for the children. If you’re ready to begin exploring how the past may be impacting your present, I’d love to join you on your journey of healing. I’m cheering for you! - Brittni 561.501.1996 brittni@inspiredhope.life  Grief can take on many forms. We can lose a loved one or a friend. We can lose a dream, a way of life, a view of ourselves, or grieve our childhood. We can grieve the loss of a pet who felt like family. We can grieve the family we never had, or, grieve the loss of an ability (physically, mentally, intellectually).
All of these deserve the time and space for proper grieving. The grief journey is painful; but, more pain can come from avoiding grief rather than going through it. Some stages of grief include the following: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. We don’t “move” through these stages in a beautiful, organized, systematic way; no, far from it. However, naming the stage we’re in can be validating and reassuring since giving language to our experiences helps us make sense of them. This is important so we can acknowledge the feelings that come with that stage of grief. Grief is a process. A process is to be honored; not rushed, minimized, or invalidated. Remember that phrase: We feel, to deal, to heal (in that order). In regards to grief, it’s hard for us to feel if we don’t know how to let ourselves feel, or, if we can’t make a connection with what is happening to us internally during the grief process. This is where the guidance of the grief cycle can help with naming our experience. When others in our lives are grieving, never underestimate the power of simply showing up, listening, and being available. We don't have to have wise sayings, we don't have to fix anything, “silver lining” the situation (as Brene Brown says), or cure the sadness. Remember, empathy is more important than anything. Just be and feel with the person. (Empathy is a skill we can develop) Since empathy is simply our ability to connect with another person’s pain, in order to strengthen our “empathy muscles” it means we have to be able to get in touch with our own painful experiences in order to fully connect with other people’s painful experiences. So, if we want to build our empathy muscles, we must consider doing the following for ourselves: go to therapy, journal (our thoughts, feelings, emotions), or join a recovery or support group. If we deny our own painful experiences, we aren’t able to fully connect with empathy towards someone else’s painful experience(s). (If you think you might be struggling with denial, check out my previous blog post) If you're currently going through a loss of any sort, know that help is available and it's okay to reach out. Grief can be scary, lonely, and painful, but you don't have to walk through it alone. You are worth getting support. Your voice and story are important. - Brittni  If you check off a few of the above struggles, know that it's okay and healing is possible. The first step in getting help typically involves overcoming denial (see previous blog post) and then identifying our current struggles. See identifying areas we struggle in IS NOT, I repeat, IS NOT a weakness. In fact, it takes extreme courage and strength to admit when our lives are unmanageable, distressing, or overwhelming in some way. Admitting the areas we struggle in simply allows us to get the right care and treatment for that area. Think about it like this, when you go to the doctor for a health concern, you're asked to describe the symptoms of the problem so the doctor knows the proper treatment regimen to provide. You'd agree that there's a difference between how a doctor would treat, let's say, lung cancer, pneumonia, and asthma? Right? Yes, of course. Now, there might be similar issues with breathing or the lungs; however, the course of treatment would be vastly different. It first came down to the patient expressing that there was a problem/concern, coming in for the proper evaluation by a trained professional, and then being willing to accept the course of treatment the doctor recommends. In many ways, this is similar to how we handle addressing a client's concerns mentally and emotionally. Our willingness to admit our current struggles with some of these traits, usually means we're ready to get to work on how to overcome these struggles. When it comes to tackling the above listed concerns, it's important that we have support, encouragement, and a safe, non-judgmental environment to feel safe in, in order to explore these struggles. I like to take a strength's based approach with this by reminding clients that the adult-children-of-alcoholics (or addicts or abusers) traits were coping skills at one point; they might've helped you survive/endure an abusive, scary, unpredictable home life, or helped you endure and feel in control with some other dysfunctional situation growing up. This is okay. We honor the fact that you MADE IT, you SURVIVED, you GOT THROUGH IT; now, as adults, we get to decide if the behaviors are still working for us. If they aren't, because they are creating distress internally or externally for us (think relationally, vocationally, etc), we get the choice and are empowered, today, to make healthy choices to better improve our situations. As children, we didn't know better and we didn't often have any other choice; we did the VERY BEST we could at the time. So, we recognize that, then, move towards how we can become the healthiest, adult version of ourselves as possible. Remember, there IS hope for your situation and healing IS possible! I'm cheering for you! - Brittni  |
AuthorYou matter. Archives
March 2022
Categories |
RSS Feed
