I want to cry because I feel like I have never given myself the credit for what I survived through in my childhood

When you see it you cannot unsee it. And EVERYTHING makes sense to you.  And Thank god for this lady.

Most of my adult life, I never knew there was anything like  an ACOA syndrome. I am almost 60 years old now. This this lady was amazing and  spot on. I am a ACOA. I can relate to everything she said about ACOA's in her talk. The part about not having a data base to draw back to was so true for me because I also was half deaf and missing bits and pieces of information anyway in my childhood . My father eventually found sobriety. I thought then that all was solved and life would move on
Back then in late 60's early 70's times were different. I saw life as just trying to get through it, not about living it. I have had good life, but never married because the idea of doing so I dreaded when young. I missed out on having a wife, children, and grandchildren of my own This saddens me know. Now I just try to be best person I can be

I am forever grateful to Janet Woititz for her book which opened the door to my ACOA recovery in the mid-1980s. Thank you!

10:28 “Adult Children do not have a sense of process “
WOW 🥺🆗 this statement is powerful in that it sums up my lifetimes ideas (60 plus years) of ALL the brilliance left dormant due to my own “no sense of process. Time has come to stop beating my self up over what I could not control
Thank you Dr Jan ( may your memory be Eternal+++) and Lisa

The people laughing are only laughing because its a relief to feel seen.

People who grow up in alcoholism often feel they are leaving mothers and siblings behind.  We are codependent helpers until we get well. And PTSD HOMES.

What an interesting and well informed scholar and therapist.  You can see the difference right away between a credentialed therapist and a glib peddler of psycho-babble. So many of them on Youtube with their feel good videos and upsell of merch.  Here at last is quality content, authentic and informative.  I learned a lot. Thank you for posting.
Dr. Janet Woititz died so young at age 55 of cancer in 1994.  Such a radiant personality.

When the content of a presentation is of high quality, the comments are also very rich in information. Thank you to you all!

The world lost a great woman far too young!!  I laughed and cried throughout this tremendous presentation.  I need to go back to this work as its a life long struggle.  Thank you Lisa.

29:30 "There is simply no advantage as a child of an alcoholic to tell the truth", this is another I've struggled with. As an adult I often feel compelled to act like I know something I don't because that was my childhood environment. Learning to be ok saying "I don't know - let's find out together" has been a long process

Nearly didnt watch this as it is so old but very glad i did. The acoa has to guess what 'normal' is. For me, the bit about the missing 'data' was so true. For years i railed about poor managers but it wasnt until about 4 years into being a manager myself that i realised there was no point in complaining about anything unless i knew how it should be done. My company, beratedly   is finally expanding. I didnt know why i was always late. It never occurred to me to work out how long it took me to get ready, travel etc. But more importantly,  i hadnt realised that i was - unconsciously- re-creating the chaos that i was brought up in. Many thanks for keeping this old video available.

I was stuck in AA's Steps 6&7 for almost 3 years until I went to the Adults Children of Alcoholic group. Game changes, my childhood. Today I have been sober for ten years, thank you.

Both of my parents have been dead for a long time, but often still get new insights about how extensive  the inversion of the parent-child relationship was. They told some real whoppers of lies as well as throwing way more tantrums than I ever did. I read her book many years ago and I think of it and her often. Thank you for these posting these lectures.

There's so many things I can relate with this , although I have no one in my family with alcoholism but somehow belong to dysfunctional family and I am a recovering addict belong to fellowship of NA and clean for 40 months .

Thanks Lisa. You mother was a trail blazers. And I am standing tall on the shoulders of giant’s. I have shared this with a few hundred people on our what’s group

Feeling a lot less alone. Down to the detail ❤

Your Mothers book Adult Children of Alcoholics changed/saved my recovery/life when I was 3 years clean/sober from drugs/alcohol working a great program with great sponsorship and sponsoring many addicts, alcoholics yet still dying inside baffled and confused, thinking why am I still suffering even after all this. I stumbled into the main branch library in my hometown suffering from a massive abandonment rupture from a failed romantic relationship that triggered all my Mother wound childhood trauma guided by my higher power to the recovery section of the library and picked up her book. I read it and balled my eyes out and shortly after feeling very frightened I attended my first ACA meeting on March 1, 2016. I have come a long way but I am still suffering tremendously but not as much as I was prior to that day. I probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t find her book that day.

What she said at 8:00 about making something up to please the therapist broke me, I've been doing that my whole life. Thank you for uploading this, I wanna get better I just don't know how yet.

I'm 10 minutes in. Want to savour this video, do it piece by piece because this is THE most insightful information i've ever had. I've been to a therapist for year, didn't do much good. Now i know why. I always felt there was something profoundly wrong with me since the therapy did not work. Played along with the therapist so it wouldn't be too awkward. Sometimes she said that i had made great progress because of this and this, but i knew that it was just a play. Still i stayed for years. What a waste of time and money