When Sobriety Isn’t Enough: An ACA Recovery Story of Trauma, Dating & Grief w/ Francisco
Adult Child
Andrea
4.9 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 June 2025
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when you get sober… but the pain is still there?
In this raw and relatable episode, Andrea sits down with fellow ACA Francisco to explore what healing actually looks like after sobriety — that messy middle where emotional numbness, grief, trauma recovery, and real intimacy all start to surface.
Francisco got sober as a teenager, but it wasn’t until he found ACA that he began to confront the deeper wounds of his childhood. Together, they talk about what it means to un-thaw from functional freeze, grieve in real time, and build relationships rooted in wholeness rather than survival.
Key Takeaways:
- Why sobriety alone isn’t enough — and how ACA helped Francisco finally feel what he’d been avoiding
- How “doing okay” can be a mask for emotional shutdown
- The intersection of grief, trauma healing, and long-term recovery
- How dating becomes a mirror for unresolved wounds — and a catalyst for growth
- Why emotional sobriety isn’t about being happy, but being real
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just because the drinking stops doesn't mean the dysfunction does. |
| 0:07.0 | My name is Andrea and this is adult child. |
| 0:10.0 | Yeah, hey, now. Welcome back to growing up in a Just let it all go |
| 0:21.6 | What's making you slow now |
| 0:23.6 | I'm a lot go |
| 0:25.6 | I'm a adult child |
| 0:26.6 | Where we take a deep dive into the impact |
| 0:28.6 | of growing up in a dysfunctional family |
| 0:31.6 | O'hoie my dear shit shows |
| 0:34.6 | For any new listeners, my name is Andrea |
| 0:36.6 | I am a total and complete shit show. |
| 0:39.0 | I am an adult child of an alcoholic and disfilling tonal family. I'm a recovering alcoholic myself. |
| 0:44.1 | And this is the podcast for when you realize that your childhood is wreaking havoc on your life as an |
| 0:53.2 | adult, the podcast where we talk about serious shit, but we don't take ourselves too seriously. |
| 0:58.7 | That is actually fun to listen to. |
| 1:00.9 | The podcast where we don't sugarcoat things or pretend like we have it all together. |
| 1:05.4 | And most importantly, embrace the fact that this healing journey is messy as fuck. |
| 1:12.2 | And yes, we curse here. |
| 1:13.1 | You've been warned. |
| 1:13.8 | I'm an acquired taste. |
| 1:15.2 | You've been warned. |
| 1:16.3 | So today we are revisiting an episode that is just your classic adult child story. |
... |
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