Today let’s talk about isolation.
Have you ever felt like you had no one to talk to? That people just didn’t understand what you were going through?
I had that experience, and when I started trying to deal with it, I found out one of the biggest effects of growing up in an alcoholic family was isolation. I had to learn to talk to people – people who understood the feeling of being a teenager trapped inside a house, in the dead of winter, an unpredictable drunk in the living room, and no way to escape. I had to talk about what had happened, how I felt about it, and how it was affecting me in today’s world. I found out I was not alone – others had gone through similar things, and talking about those old events helped me begin to release them.
It was very freeing!
Have you ever had a similar experience?
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Then why not announce at the start of each “Minute to Freedom” that it is specifically about alcoholism and the recovery of adult children of alcoholics? Then the last lines of each “Minute” won’t come as such a surprise to the listener.
“Minute to Freedom” can mean just about anything. “Minute to Freedom from an Alcoholic-Family Past” would be much more specific, more meaningful, more accurate, and better designed to catch the attention of those who will truly benefit from them — and who might walk away or turn the station after hearing the very unspecific words “Minute to Freedom” at the beginning.
Just a thought…
-Marc
Marc –
Great feedback. I’ll certainly give that some thought. After your earlier comment, we have been trying to focus the minutes more toward the alcoholic family aspect on this magazine.
The audio segments were recorded back in 2008, and didn’t have that clarity you suggest about the alcoholic family aspect. I suspect they’re still being played on two radio stations in San Francisco. While I would like to refine the audios, they were professionally produced at a cost I can’t afford right now, so I can’t submit updated audios to that station or others who play them.
I’ll put that on my “to do” list. 🙂
Dan
Dan, did you ever consider the fact many listeners can’t relate to your “Minute to Freedom” because so many of these radio minutes have your family alcoholism as the theme? I hear your radio minutes on KNEW-AM in San Francisco in the evenings. It seems that nearly all of them wind up being about your being raised in a family with an alcoholic father. Although I can understand the main goals of these minutes (developing strategies to cope with isolation, feelings, responsibility, etc.), I simply can’t relate to the personal alcoholism background from which you’ve developed them.
Any ideas?
-Marc
Marc –
Great feedback! Thanks for giving me your perspectives. Glad you also hear the Minutes on the San Francisco station. I do understand that if you don’t have the family alcoholism experience it is more difficult to relate to the theme. The minutes were not meant as much to be life strategies as to be seed thoughts for people who had been through the difficulties of a troubled childhood like I had. Over the time they’ve been airing, I’ve received quite a bit of feedback from people who say I’ve given voice to their similar experiences. That said, I think I will leave the minutes as they are, and allow them to speak to those who will benefit the most. I can understand how you might not connect with them, because of the recurrent theme of family alcoholism.
Warmly,
Dan
I know this was posted almost a year later, but from living in a family with an alcoholic father, I can relate to almost every one of these “minutes”. I called my sponsor for the first time this morning and told him how reading the various books on ACA that im reading and the fact that they define me so well has made me terribly depressed. Apparently the initial depression and realization happens to alot of us who “deny” these sad, terrible things that happened to us with growing up with an alcoholic int he family.
Im just blessed to have found this organization and wish it was 15 years ago before I made so many mistakes in life.
Merry Christmas,
Steven
Steven –
I know you must relate to the minutes, given the upbringing we share. Awesome that you’re calling your sponsor. Yes, I completely understand – it’s that moment of realization that I really had been dealt a lemon of a life, and it would take significant effort to overcome it. I had made the comment that “I grew up in a garden variety alcoholic family. Nothing much happened.” That was far from the truth, and my denial – I believe – shielding me from how bad it really was until I was able to handle it.
Having been diagnosed with chronic and severe PTSD from violent incidents with my Dad which I later remembered (buried memories will return), I see now that I needed to be gently led into full awareness of that lemon – lest it overwhelm me and I escape into drugs and alcohol and eventual death.
It truly IS a blessing to have a recovery option, and I have stated before that that ACoA saved my life – and I meant that literally.
Merry Christmas,
Dan