New articles by Dr. Tian Dayton
"What is an ACOA?"
"Recovery Movement Grassfires Ignited"
"The Hidden Pain of the Addicted Family"
"Relationship Dynamics Within the Addicted/Traumatized Family System"
Portrait of an Alcoholic Family: Forgotten Children; Right Next Door? Our readers are welcome to reprint this article in its entirety for educational purposes only, and provided NACoA and Dr. Dayton receive full credit.
Creativity, Play and Care of the Soul
by Dr. Tian Dayton
Recovery is about more than sobering up. It's about recapturing a sense of creativity, spontaneity and aliveness.
"Your Story Matters"
NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) Commissioner Karen M. Carpenter-Palumbo…Read full statement.
Claudia Black has written a blog on Psychology Today about children of alcoholics. We invite you to read this article titled Children of Addiction.
Selected COMMENT Articles from NACoA Newsletters
Fall 2011
The Impact of Substance Abuse on Children and Youth in Foster Care
By Judge Katherine Lucero
Spring 2011
The More Things Change
By Stephanie Abbott
Summer 2008
The Challenge:
Drawn by Anger…Motivated by Hope
by Sis Wenger
Spring 2007
Silenced Into Listening
By Carey Sipp
Winter 2007
Gifts With Recovery
By Stephanie Abbott
January/February 2005
The Rules of Change
By Dennis Wholey
Change is hard but it can be exciting and fun.
Summer 2004
The Grandparents
and the COA
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
The practical things a grandparent can do.
November/December 2004
"Home"
For the Holidays
By Tian Dayton, Ph.D.
How the adult child can cope when revisiting the scene of trauma.
September/October 2004
When Natural
Disasters Happen
By Tian Dayton, Ph.D.
How to help children during scary disasters.
September/October 2004
Winter 2004
Parents
of COAs
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
Some of the barriers to forgiveness of alcoholic parents can be overcome.
Summer 2003
When Your Child
is Addicted
By Nan Reynolds, M.S.W.
Advice for parents with an addicted child
Fall 2003
Quality
Alcohol Treatment is Good Medicine
By Eric Goplerud, Ph.D.
Increased access to quality alcohol treatment is good medicine and good economics.
Fall 2002
Reciprocal Recovery
By Jeannette L. Johnson, Ph.D. and Juanita J. Leonard, LLC
Suggestions for support programming for children of individuals
in treatment and recovery
Summer 2002
To Raise
Our Children, We Must First Raise Ourselves
By Carey Sipp
An account of an ACOA parent's struggle to re-parent herself
and learn new parenting skills. The author advocates an association
of "Turn Around Parents."
Summer 2002
Core Competencies
for Co-Dependents
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
Suggestions for tools ACOA parents should have in order to do
a good job of raising their children.
Spring 2002
A Student Assistance
Program in Action
By Cynthia Peck, Ph.D.
A description of a model elementary-school student assistance
program (SAP) developed for the Santa Ana, California, Unified
School District and funded by the federal Safe and Drug Free
Schools Model Demonstration program.
Spring 2002
SAPs
and COAs
By James Crowley, M.A.
A statement about the benefits of student assistance programs
for children living with family acoholism.
January/February 2002
Parents in Recovery
By Brenda A. Miller, Ph.D.
This article describes two ongoing projects that illustrate
the resilience of families in recovery.
November/December 2001
The Effect of Trauma on
Family Relationships
By Tian Dayton, Ph.D.
This article explains how the trauma of addiction produces family relationship dynamics that perpetuate dysfunction.
September 6, 2001
Remarks
at Al-Anon's 50th Anniversary Luncheon
By Claudia Black, Ph.D.
An overview of the problem of family addiction, and a call for public resources to treat the entire family.
Spring 2001
COAs and Economic
Costs
By Alison Snow Jones, Ph.D.
An enumeration of current and future economic consequences of parental alcoholism for
COAs and society as a whole.
November/December 2000
COAs: Let's Not
Assume the Worst
By James G. Emshoff, Ph.D., and Laura L. Jacobus
A reminder that research findings on the risks of alcoholism
cannot be generalized to individual COAs.
September/October 2000
When Your Parent
Is Your Pusher
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
This article calls attention to the detrimental influence addicted
parents can have on their children's choices about alcohol and
drugs.
Winter 2000
Children of Alcoholics
and Children of Drug Abusing Parents: Setting the Record Straight
By Robert A. Zucker, Ph.D., and Hiram E. Fitzgerald
This article challenges the belief that the harder drugs form
the bulk of the nation's drug problems, and considers all the
risks of parental addiction.
Web Articles
November 1999
NACoA's National Treatment
Center Prevalence Survey of Services to Children of Clients
By Michael J. Stoil, Ph.D.
In an attempt to determine how many and what kinds of programs are available
to the school age children of individuals in treatment for substance
abuse, NACoA has conducted a national survey of licensed substance abuse
programs. A report of the findings was presented to the Society for
Public Health Education (SOPHE)
Summer 1999
The Twelve Week Recovery
Program Twenty Years Later
By Cathleen Brooks
A young ACOA discovers recovery from her own alcoholism and
has a surprise in the process.
Summer 1999
Parents In Recovery
By Nan Reynolds, M.S.W.
A look at what happens to parents with an addicted child and how they can find their way.
Summer 1999
Ten Great Things About
Recovering From Someone Else's Addiction
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
A short list of what can go right when you do some work on your own character.
Summer 1999
Family Recovery Means
Children Too!
By Jerry Moe, M.A.
A plea for family services, how it works and how it can be successful as children become "reconnected with their hearts."
June 1999
Healing
the Future: Understanding Ourselves as Adult Children of Alcoholics
Kathy Lowe Peterson of the Lowe Family Foundation participates in an
interview with Stephanie Abbott, Editor of the NACoA newsletter and
a specialist in family aspects of addiction. The discussion centers
on the normal reactions of children and adult children to family alcoholism.
©Lowe Family Foundation, June 1999.
March/April 1999
A Circle of Love
By Kathy Lowe Petersen
Emotional acceptance that a parent was alcoholic leads to some happy results for a family of adult children.
March/April 1999
The Unwelcome Intruder
By Dennis N. Marks, M.D.
A pediatrician knows he must intervene when he is concerned
about alcohol use in the parent of a patient.
1998
COA Support Groups
By Claudia Black, Ph.D., M.S.W.
Stresses the importance of adult support to COAs.
Covers programming for children's groups.
1998
Education and Child
Care Initiatives for Young COAs
By Catherine Herzog, Ph.D., M.S.W.
The importance of training adults who work with COAs.
1998
Who Carries the Disease?
By Tian Dayton, Ph.D.
A therapist takes a hard look at her family and the strange
thing that
happened when they expelled her alcoholic father.
1998
The Trauma of Family Recovery
By Stephanie Brown, Ph.D.
There is now good research about the process of recovery for
the family
with addiction, and it has predictable stages, which this article
describes.
September/October 1997
Listen To the Voices Of the
Family
By William Cope Moyers
A personal story of a husband and father who urges that we pay
attention
to the unique perspective of family members.
Summer 1997
Violence in the Family
By Geri Redden, M.Ed.
The system of violence in a family usually includes alcohol or drug
use.
January/February 1997
Dear Children
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
A letter to all children growing up in families with addiction,
written with hope for the future.
September/October 1996
Do The Churches
Fail Families?
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
Every church and synagogue is touched by substance abuse.
What can the parish leaders do to help troubled families?
May 1996
Families
In Recovery
By Stephanie Brown, Ph.D.
The changes that a recovering alcoholic family goes through
during
adjustment to sobriety produces some trauma for the children.
January/February 1996
The
Role of Primary Care Physicians
By Hoover Adger, Jr, M.D., M.P.H.
The physician can let the COA know that help is available.
1995
Why NACoA?
By Stephanie Abbott, M.A.
A brief overview of why NACoA was organized and the work it
does.
1995
When
the Teacher is Knowledgeable and Caring
By Deborah George Wright, M.A.
The importance of training teachers on how to lessen the effects
of substance
abuse on the development of students.
1995
Spirit
Versus Silence
By Robert J. Ackerman, Ph.D.
What it is like for a boy growing up in a dysfunctional family.
September/October 1995
To Walk
With One Child
By Jerry Moe, M.A.
Caring about a child is all that it takes to begin helping.
July/August 1995
Resilience:
A Multicultural Perspective
By James H. Evans, M.A.
An African-American perspective on the protective factors of
resiliency in COAs.
1993
If Someone
Had Been There
By Jerry Moe, M.A.
Weekly educational groups can make a critical difference to
the COA.
Special Edition
1993
Shifting
Gears: The Adult Child and Successful Therapy
By Tharpley M. Long, L.C.S.W.
The shifts that a successfully treated adult child makes in
life.
Special Edition
November/December 1992
COAs in Foster
Care
By Iris Smith, Ph.D.
Placement in foster care may increase the risk of later developmental
problems.