How do you find support when you’re an ACoA?
How do you find support when you’re an ACoA?
The first step of reaching out is the hardest. Many ACoAs have lived in fear and isolation for many years. ACoAs can be used to “doing it on their own”, not needing any help and holding on to their own personal stories and secrets with shame. It takes a great risk for an ACoA to begin to come out of isolation to start to share their experience with another, but once this starts the healing can begin. This can happen in ACA meetings or in therapy or both.
Many people find the combination of meetings and therapy to be great support — a skilled therapist should have an extensive background working with trauma and understanding that many ACoAs have PTSD.
The therapy portion of the work should offer support, relational healing, and trauma work which is different than what happens in a meeting setting (though some of that is there too, just indirectly!) It can be scary to start therapy, but it’s great to support recovery work when the therapist understands the value of meetings and therapy as a whole path.
