There is some truth to the adage that if you are a child of an alcoholic, you don?t ever really grow up.

Obviously you will grow up physically — but psychologically, emotionally, and spiritually many of us are still trapped in early childhood. We were never given the option of learning a “normal” way of thinking, feeling or reacting.

Children of alcoholics are raised by people who never grew up themselves. We had no “normal” example to follow. How are we supposed to understand how healthy families relate to each other? We certainly haven?t had any experience with it ourselves!

As we grew we became adults, got married and raised children who, just like us, have no idea how healthy and functional families operate. How could we understand how to be good parents? We’d never seen one in action! The cycle continues.