Addiction can damage or destroy more than just the addicted. Growing up in a household with a parent addicted to alcohol or drugs requires children to invent coping skills to make sense of the shape-shifting emotional terrain of their chaotic household.
Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs) often develop issues directly related to their past experience and carry into their current lives feelings and behaviors that sabotage a healthy and productive adulthood.
Sarah Smith-Putman, a licensed addiction counselor and partner at Chester River Behavioral Health and Wellness in Chestertown, discusses some of the traits ACOAs often display in their adulthood and how identifying them through counseling and support groups can offer a road to recovery.
Contact Information:
Chester River Behavioral Health and Wellness
952 Washington Avenue
Chestertown
410-778-5550
pamela heyne says
Editor,
This is an extremely interesting short video by Sarah Smith-Putnam. My first husband was the “adult child of an alcoholic” and I feel that is one reason our marriage failed. These “children” are often in pain, and cope in different ways.