Hi
I'm new to the website and I don't really want to talk about myself. I think even just reading other people's stories so you know you're not alone is so helpful, so thanks for providing this COAP.
I just wanted to tell everyone about these people I discovered recently who are truly amazing.
NACOA is the national association for children of alcoholics. (I'm sorry if you've got a different problem-I hope COAP's link can help) (and you don't have to be a child - you can be 3years old or 83years old!)
They're wonderful. They have this helpline where you can ring up and no one will ever know you've rung - it doesn't cost anything and it won't appear on your parents phone bill so it's like an invisible call.
I think its 0800 3583456.
You can just talk. You can tell them your problems and they just listen and they just KNOW what you're going through. And they won't try to take you away from your parents or tell anyone your name or anything.
If you don't want to talk they can give you ideas of other people you can talk to or things you can do to avoid getting into difficult situations with your alcoholic parnt.
I just think if there were more peopl in the world like the ones here and at NACOA there'd be less of us hurting. Oh I just remembered you can email NACOA too but I don't know the email. I think its on www.nacoa.org.uk
I hope some of you are able to recover as well as I am doing. I don't know if things ever really go away for good but please know that you can learn to get past them.
Samuel
