ACA vs Al-Anon

The information passed on by my ACA Fellow Travelers helped to give me clarity when I first came to ACoA type recovery.

Besides the different First Step and the different Tradition Seven funds I have learned ACA has the copyrights to The Problem ,The Solution and The ACA Promises "is" ACA WSO conference approved literature.

The Problem,The Solution and The Promises "is not" Al-Anon Adult Child Anonymous conference approved literature.

While Al Anon and ACA are Twelve Step programs, they are somewhat different in focus and approach. Al Anon primarily focuses on familial alcoholism and how to live detached and serenely with a drinking alcoholic or to live a better life with an alcoholic, who has found recovery. In Al Anon, the Al Anon focus on self and works their own program.

In ACA, we focus on ourselves as well and work our own program. With the Twelve Steps, we focus on recovering from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or dysfunctional home. We believe the effects of a dysfunctional home guide or steer our behavior and thoughts as adults. Unlike, Al Anon, we look at the family system in addition to inventorying our own behaviors in recovery.

The ACA member looks at dysfunctional family roles, harmful messages and other abuse involved in growing up in a dysfunctional home. We believe it is essential and healing to work the Twelve Steps and to look at the family system as we also concentrate on our individual behaviors and thoughts.

If you look at Al Anon's First Step and ACA's First Step, you will see the difference.

Al Anon -- Step One:

`We admitted we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives had become unmanageable.''

ACA -- Step One:

`We admitted we were powerless over the effects of alcoholism and other family dysfunction, that our lives had become unmanageable.

ACA WSO has done its best to present the answer to these questions in ACA literature and through this forum and we will continue to do so while remaining respectful to Al-Anon and other Twelve Step fellowships.

With the publication of our new fellowship text, more and more people are understanding that ACA is an autonomous 12-Step program that is separate from other fellowships.

They understand that this separation is reasonable and in line with the separation called for by AA and Al-Anon and which works for AA and Al-Anon. More adult children are finding ACA and embracing our solution to the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family.

Additionally, I respectfully ask that ACA meetings should not be confused with outside entities or other Twelve Step approaches that use ACA material but who do not use our fellowship name.

Adult Children of Alcoholics was the first Twelve Step fellowship to write literature that is specific to the adult child experience.

ACA meetings use the Laundry List (Problem), the Solution and the ACA Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.

ACA meetings include ACA's foundational language of alcoholism and recovery from the effects of alcoholism.

ACA has widened its focus to gladly include adult children from other dysfunctional family types but we remain Adult Children of Alcoholics with a focus on the the effects of alcoholism.

ACA is totally different...........it is the most difficult of all the Programs, as it focuses on 

why I am an Addict.It gives me the reason.........for my addictions.

At al-anon we learned that his drinking was not our fault and that we should not be 

enablers to his drinking. Easier said than done in most situations. I assume, but can't 

say for sure, that ACoA would deal with how the drinking affected you as a child and

 the effect it has on you today as an adult.

Al-Anon has separate meetings called AAC, Al-Anon’s Adult Children. While the Laundry 

List is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature, groups may use it if they take a 

group conscience.  Many AAC groups use the Laundry List this way. There is still tension 

over use of this document; in some states the Al-Anon groups will not list AAC groups 

that use it. My experience is that the people who are most against it, that is, they attend 

meetings and then dramatically announce that that Laundry List is not approved, are the

one in most need of Adult Child recovery.
  ACA, the fellowship which began in California, 

has an awesome Big Book which has just begun circulating where I live and it is having 

a huge impact.

How interesting! My Sponsor also told me the same thing about Alanon focusing on the 

alcoholic for when in Alanon she was told many times not to speak about codependency.

I, too,  was told not to speak about other addictions except alcoholism – ended up having 

a blue with the woman who runs the Alanon office in my state when I was a desperate 

newcomer seeking help from Alanon and told I could not speak of my partners alternate

addiction.
  Whilst I think it’s important for Alanon to focus on how to deal with the 

alcoholic on one’s life, it’s also important to them to focus on issues such as inner child/ 

FOO and codependency issues.
 

The Alateens and Tony formed a specially focused meeting that broke away from Al-Anon

and became the first ACA group.  The new group, Generations, focused on recovering from

the effects of being raised in a dysfunctional family rather than the Al-anon focus of being

powerless over alcohol.

While Tonys' story mentions our eventual separation from the Al-Anon fellowship, ACA cooperates with Al-Anon and enjoys a mutual respect of this program.

Hope For Adult Children - Adapted from an Interview With Tony A.

At the end of 1976 or the beginning of 1977,  four or five young people who had recently "graduated" from Alateen joined Al-Anon, a Twelve Step fellowship for the spouses, friends and relatives of alcoholics

In Alateen, these young people had explored the impact of being raised by alcoholic and co-alcoholic parents now known as codependents. The teens looked at the effects of living in an alcoholic household.  Entering Al-Anon, they were faced with the concept of learning to live serenely in a dysfunctional setting.  Stepping up to Al-Anon meant they were faced with attending meetings that focused primarily on adult issues or spousal drinking.  Some of the Alateens felt unsafe in their homes and believed they could not relate in Al-Anon.

Tony said Al-Anon taught a few skills to the young people, including how to get their own needs met. These bold teens formed their own Al-Anon meeting which they named Hope for Adult Children of Alcoholics. This first meeting met in the Smithers Building in Manhattan.  This group used the Al-Anon format but improvised the meeting discussion. The discussions involved the neglect, abuse and fear that the Alateens thought they could not fully share about in Al-Anon. A second meeting known as Generations would be formed but it would have no affiliation with Al-Anon.

While the first new group was being formed, the Alateens heard about an Alcoholics Anonymous member sharing in AA about his experiences of growing up in a violent alcoholic home. This was Tony, a 50-year-old recovering alcoholic and New York City stockbroker. Cindy, a member of the Hope for Adult Children of Alcoholics group, heard Tonys' AA story and asked him to be a guest speaker at the newly formed group.

Tony said he was 30 years older than the Alateens but their age difference dissolved when he began telling his story. "When we began," Tony said, "There was a wonderful feeling of mutual love, empathy, and understanding."

Hope for Adult Children of Alcoholics was technically an Al-Anon meeting, however,

something special was happening with each meeting and with each story being told, 

Tony said. The founding principles of ACA were being unearthed and spoken in these

early meetings. The dysfunctional family rules of "don't talk, don't trust and don't feel.. 

were being challenged. However, the meeting struggled because of a lack of structure and 

focus, Tony said. After six or seven months, instead of the increasing membership as 

expected, the fledgling meeting had dwindled to three or four people. The meeting was 

about to fold. Out of instinct and spiritual insight, Tony said he invited members of AA to

join the little group. He reasoned that some of them, after all, had alcoholic parents of 

their own. He was right. Seventeen AA members showed up for the next meeting of Hope 

For Adult Children of Alcoholics. At the following meeting there were 50 people. At the 

next there were more than 100 people mostly from AA. The somewhat radical Al-Anon 

meeting was on its way with a lot of help from some good AA friends. Yet, the group still

lacked consistent structure and clear distinction of its message.

Family alcoholism could and did cause life-long patterns of dysfunctional behavior even for those who never took a drink. The family systems concept of addiction and family dysfunction became more visible as well.  Before that time, most addiction or mental health models focused on the individual addict.  Black and others were saying that the disease of family dysfunction had long-range effects on the children, who became adults. The children were affected by the alcoholism even though they were not putting alcohol into their bodies.