Strengthening My Recovery: Meditations for Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families

In a myriad of ways most of us were taught that we were inferior. Our perceptions were challenged. Our feelings were denied. Our thoughts were overpowered by the dysfunction in our families.

“The false self is the adult child personality expressed in the 14 traits of the Laundry List.” BRB p. 7

Today, we nurture ourselves by deciding what we want the universe to send us, because we’re open to the possibility that we can have those things. We allow ourselves to swim around in the scent of promise. We deserve it. We realize that wanting something is not bad; it’s a healthy part of being human. We allow our minds and hearts to wander because

As adults, we found relationships where we could continue to do what we did best: wait. We waited in fear for the addict, for the abuse, for anything to go wrong.

our self-doubt was more powerful than our ability to trust ourselves.

“Most of us agonize over mistakes because we internalize the error.”

We were placed in the middle of adult dysfunction at a very young age. We learned it was our job to focus on others and make things better. We also learned that our needs and wants were not important. It became a habit we carried into adulthood that also kept us from looking at ourselves.

Our black-and-white thinking may even be causing us to see things as much worse than they really are.

We weren’t allowed to have normal feelings, so we became numb.