Sometimes
I get sick and tired of the negative characteristics of being an offspring of
an alcoholic. We have to be more than
just a sad face hiding behind a mask.
Some of the negative characteristics are children of alcoholic tend to lie when it would be just as easy to tell
the truth; they don’t cope well with change; they have a hard time expressing
their needs; they tend to be indecisive, the list goes on. Do ACOAs have any good characteristics?
Amy
Eden, author of Adult-Child Issues, Raise
Yourself Up offers that we can take those negative characters and use them
for good. We can even change the world
by realizing that we are tough, imaginative, sensitive, and creative.
An
online article entitled What’s Your Great
Asset provides 5 strengths of an ACOA:
We can empathize: We are exceptional listeners. We’ve spent so many years thinking about the
feelings of other, before ourselves, that we’re deeply talented at putting
ourselves in other people’s shoes.
We are independent: Because we didn’t think highly of the
authority figures in charge of us for so many years, we’ve got lots of opinions
about how to run things.
We are creative: So many children of alcoholics go into the
arts. They are actors, writers, and
painters. Our sensitivity – to animals,
to people in pain – gives us a third eye and ear that allows us to see and hear
the realities of the human condition.
We are resilient: We are survivors. We are growing, healing, and redefining our
futures. Resilience is the ability to
recover from insult or injury.
We are
calm: Children of alcoholics would make
great emergency room doctors, nurses, paramedics, or fire fighters. We are hard to shock, and we can stay calm in
the midst of chaos.
This
list makes me feel like less of a freak and more like a regular person. Hi, I’m Liz Hawkins and I’m a recovering
Adult Child of an Alcoholic.
#ACoA_Awareness
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