Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families

Adult Children of Alcoholics & Dysfunctional Families (ACA or ACOA) founded circa 1978 is a fellowship of people who desire to recover from the effects of growing up in an alcoholic or otherwise dysfunctional family. ACA membership has few formal requirements. ACA does not accept any outside contributions and is supported entirely by donations from its members. The organization is not related to any particular religion and has no political affiliation. Tony A. was among its co-founders and is the author of The Laundry List, 12 steps for adult children of alcoholics (known as "Tony A's 12 Steps"), The Problem, which are all published in his book, The Laundry List: The ACOA Experience (co-authored with Dan F.)

The organization's name is often ascribed to Janet G. Woititz (c. 1939 – June 7, 1994), an American psychologist and researcher best known for her writings and lectures on the adult children of alcoholic parents, and author of the 1983 book Adult Children of Alcoholics.

The term ACoA was also extended to include PTSD by Tian Dayton, specifically in her book The ACoA Trauma Syndrome. In it she describes how pain from childhood emerges and gets played out in adulthood, for the ACoA, as a post-traumatic stress reaction. Childhood pain that has remained relatively dormant for decades can be re-stimulated or "triggered" by the dynamics of intimacy. "Just as a car backfiring triggers a soldier into unconscious memories of gunfire, when the ACoA grows up and enters the intimate relationships of partnering and parenting, the very vulnerability, dependency and closeness of those relationships can trigger unhealed and unconscious pain from childhood."

ACA/ACOA was originally named "Post Teen" in Mineola, Long Island in 1973.

In the mid-1970s, a group of older Alateens in Manhattan, a part of the Al-Anon fellowship, formed a group of those who were looking for a group that was not focused on parental or spousal relationships with those dealing with alcohol substance abuse. They called this group Hope of Adult Children of Alcoholics. After being asked to speak on his experiences in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Al-Anon to this group, Tony A. joined as a member. When fewer people were in attendance, Tony A. opened up the group to AA members who were adult children. Eventually, Tony started a co-current group called Generations which was not affiliated with any twelve-step group.

In 1978 Tony A. wrote The Laundry List (the 14 characteristics of adult children) and the Solution and shared it with his Generations group. The meeting where Tony A. shared his Laundry List is considered the beginning of ACA/ACOA. Members of "Generations" expressed discomfort with the AA steps around this time and also declined an offer to become an official Al-Anon group in the 1980s. Tony A. began working on a version of the 12 steps specifically for adult children of alcoholics, and published them in his 1991 book, The Laundry List: The ACOA Experience that he wrote with Dan F. Currently, ACA allows use of Tony A.'s 12 steps in addition to the AA-based 12 steps formally in ACA-approved literature.

This 12-step program is incorporated as Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfunctional Families. The ACA framework is based on the 12 steps and 12 traditions of AA.

During the 1990s, the organization went through rapid growth. In 1989, there were 1,300 ACA meetings and by 2003 there were an estimated 40,000 members of ACA. In 2014, there were 1,300 groups worldwide, about 780 of these in the USA.^{[citation needed]} Although this isn't the full picture, as of November 3, 2024, globally there are 2,745 ACA meetings registered with ACA World Services.