What is ACA?

ACA is a worldwide fellowship of adults who spent their childhood in dysfunctional, often (but not always) alcoholic family settings. Now, being grown up and often living far from our families of origin, we as adult children still experience problems that stem from our childhood experiences, from patterns we learned back then.

In Munich we have currently two English speaking ACA meetings. We meet to share our experience and recovery in a respectful, supportive, loving atmosphere (many of us are German speaking – so do not feel shy to join our meeting if you English isn’t perfect!). Together we discover and learn to recognize how family dysfunction (abuse, neglect, unhealthy behavior, often alcoholism) affected our childhood and how it still influences our present. We are liberating ourselves by carefully listening to each other, by practicing the Twelve Steps, by focusing on the ACA Solution, and by accepting a loving Higher Power of our own understanding.

Reasons to join ACA

Many of us joined ACA at a point of our lives when we realized that somehow our decisions and answers to life did not work out any longer. Our lives had become unmanageable, we had exhausted all the ways we thought we could become happy, fix ourselves. Continuing the same existence was no longer an option for us. Exhausted, we made the decision to seek help.

What happens at the meetings

At ACA we meet people who listen to us when we talk about our experiences, difficulties, insights. We can express our feelings without fear of being judged or criticized for it. Nobody tries to fix us or interrupts us when we speak. People at the meetings merely listen carefully to each other. And for almost all of us coming back to meetings on a regular basis has made a big difference in our lives: We build a personal support network. And gradually feel better. 🙂

In the meetings we come to understand how our childhood experiences shaped our attitudes, behavior, and choices today. We hear others share their experiences, and we recognize ourselves. We learn that we are not alone, that others have (had) similar problems. We gain hope that we, too, can change. We sense that there is something within ourselves, something beautiful, that goes far beyond that person who we were taught to be (some people call it our “inner child”). In the meetings and in the fellowship of ACA we begin to discover ourselves.

We read literature about ACA issues, we share our thoughts and feelings. Many of us write on a daily basis, to get things clear, to put things into perspective, to get in touch with our inner child. We write about our childhood, daily thoughts, recurring struggles, discoveries about life and ourselves. We learn to be spontaneous and to have fun.