Vital Voyage Blog

Jessie Monreal writes a raw letter to children of addiction about confused grief after losing a parent to substance use and suicide. With honesty and compassion, she names anger, love, relief, guilt, forgiveness, and the possibility of breaking cycles.

Sandy Rivers, MA, CASAC-M, RCP, shares how SUD in the home can force children into adult roles, chronic stress, hypervigilance, health problems, and isolation. Her granddaughter’s story shows why children need practical, relationship-based support long before adulthood.

Andrea Beck, Author and Emotional Recovery Coach, offers readers a compassionate way to understand Adult Child Syndrome without reducing it to a diagnosis or a defect. Drawing on her own experience growing up in an emotionally unpredictable environment, she describes the body-level patterns that can persist into adulthood. These patterns were learned for survival, and once you see them, you can begin to respond differently.

Real victimization exists, and Diane Russell Chrestman does not minimize that truth. But in this candid reflection, she explores what can happen when suffering becomes an identity. Using lived experience, ACE awareness, and Internal Family Systems language, she examines the victim role as a protector, the relief it can offer, and the courage it takes to build a life beyond the worst things that happened to us.

Vital Voyage Blog Author of the Month Michael Cline delves into the profound impact of childhood environments and generational norms, particularly those of Generation X, on shaping adult mental health.

Anger inherited from trauma can destroy relationships — or become healing. 10 practical tools to help manage your anger.

A raw account of trauma and nervous system collapse—and the slow, courageous return to safety.

Growing up with a mentally ill parent often requires children to adapt, stay quiet, and survive emotionally. This personal essay explores trauma, longing, and the slow process of healing.

Anger doesn’t come out of nowhere. In this deeply personal reflection, Tim Lineaweaver explores how childhood trauma, abuse, and shame shaped his rage — and how unresolved anger often fuels addiction and isolation later in life.

A clinical explanation of how dysfunctional family systems, emotional abuse, and enmeshment lead many adult children to estrangement

Lived experience + clinical insight—defining adult child syndrome, risks for “rainbow babies,” and protective steps families can take.

A powerful therapeutic case story showing how childhood trauma patterns can be broken—toward recovery, reconnection, and personal identity.

Valerie Smith grew up in a household marked by abuse, neglect, and instability, leading to years of struggle with complex PTSD. Through therapy, mindfulness, and her connection with nature, she found healing and resilience, ultimately transforming her pain into purpose as a psychotherapist and ecotherapy guide. In this article, Valerie shares her journey and the insights that now shape her work with clients facing trauma and recovery.

I used to think I was broken—too sensitive, too emotional, too reactive, too much, or not enough. But the truth is, I wasn't hurt; I was grieving. And not the kind of grief that earns sympathy cards. I wasn't mourning someone who passed away; I was grieving someone who was right in front of me—my mom.

Trauma is not merely an event that fades with time; it etches itself into the very fabric of our being, demanding acknowledgment and resolution. Though my experience happened in 2017, it took me four years to give the pain the acceptance and acknowledgment it needed. I got a text from someone wishing me "Happy Mother's Day," and it broke me four years later. It was at that point that I realized that our body keeps the score of every experience we go through.

The Role of Inner Child Healing in Overcoming Adult-Child Syndrome explores the importance of reconnecting with the inner child to address Adult-Child Syndrome (ACS).Stephanie Watterson is our author. Stephanie grew up in a home affected by mental illness, with a mother who struggled with mental health issues and an emotionally unavailable workaholic father.

Kirsten Rabuck collaborates with me as a co-author for this issue. She is a substance abuse counselor and an adult child of an alcoholic father, just like me. Together, we draw on our experiences as adult children to help others facing similar challenges.

Cendie Stanford is passionate about understanding and preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Drawing on her personal and ancestral history of trauma, Cendie is dedicated to educating and inspiring others.

War zones might be closer than you realize, with 25% of children growing up with a father, mother, or both who have a substance use disorder

Childhood trauma plays a significant role in the onset of adult-child syndrome. Such chronic trauma often leads to PTSD.

Transformation allows people with adult-child syndrome (ACS) to take control of their lives and continue living a life of change.

“Adult children of alcoholics” (ACOA) and “adult children of narcissists” (ACON) share a bond of growing up in dysfunctional families.

Survival strategies for children of alcoholics often live on as adults. , These survival strategies need to be unlearned and discarded.

By Tom O’Connor and Lauren Grawert, MD, FASAM, Co-Authors Is there a recovery from Adult-Child Syndrome? Is there partial recovery?

The impact of growing up in an alcoholic family can be troublesome. The alcoholic family is often characterized by dysfunction, emotional...

Mental illness symptoms, such as the Adult Children of Alcoholics, can affect emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Mental illnesses are nothin

Author, publisher, and editor of Vital Voyage Blog, Tom O'Connor, outlines what to do if you believe your spouse is struggling with AUD, Alcohol Use Disorder.

Growing up as a child of a parent who struggles with alcohol can have a lasting impact on your life. The struggles and challenges faced.....