Hi! Nice to meet you. I’m Jody Lamb. New here? Jump to my New Reader page.
I’m a personal growth author and was one of the world’s first adult child of an alcoholic bloggers. I grew up with a mother with alcoholism. I spent the first 26 years of my life focused on trying to get her to stop drinking so my family and I could finally live happily ever after. Finally, I hit rock bottom – defeated, exhausted and full of dread. Once I finally decided to focus on healing myself, I learned there are millions of people around the world who grew up with an alcoholic parent. Adult children of alcoholics think they are stuck with issues from their past too heavy to create a life they love but I am walking, dancing, living proof this isn’t true! I’m successfully healing from my past experiences and creating a life I truly love! I’m sharing what I’ve learned along the way to help other children of alcoholics. So glad you’re here!
Remember, I’m just a regular person on a journey of personal growth and healing. No fancy clinical degrees here, but I hope my experiences resonate with you. I’m not a therapist, just someone who’s been there. So, if you need professional help, please contact the professionals you can help you. If you want to join me on this healing adventure, subscribe to my newsletter for more insights and exclusive content. Let’s do this together!
Want to know now about my story? Check it out here.
More About Me
- I’m wild about personal growth and always will be because life is a journey, and we deserve it to be awesome. Life-long learner, I am!
- I’ve read everything there is to read about being an adult child of an alcoholic (ACoA), and I’m wild about sharing that knowledge to help people. I’m an advocate for other ACoAs.
- My sister is my best friend and guardian angel in little-sister disguise. I practically raised her because our mother’s substance use disorder really affected us.
- There’s a cat named Larry who picked me to be his human.
- Cucumber sandwiches are delicious. Fact.
- I dig comedy – film, TV, standup, you name it but most of all, I like the everyday life kind. I invent Saturday Night Live skits daily, inspired by the characters and scenarios around me. I can also re-enact several Chris Farley skits, line by line.
- 8 to 5, I’m a marketing and communication director in health care.
- In 2009, I got help for myself because I was afraid of what might have happened if I didn’t. I went looking for fellow adult children of alcoholics writing about their experiences online but found few so I started writing. Turns out, I was one of the world’s first bloggers to focus on this topic so people call me an pioneering ACoA recovery writer.
- In 2012, my novel for tweens about parental alcoholism was published.
MY BELIEFS
- You deserve an awesome life.
- Self-created miracles. It’s possible to have a life you can’t even imagine today.
Let’s do this. Together.
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Dear Jodi: I just finished reading your book. I started crying after the first chapter, but could not put your book down. I am a 80 year old grandmother, but it brought back many memories of my childhood as an on,y child of two parents that were heavy drinkers.
I am very active in our church, I run our Emergency Food Pantry. Our church has a group called “Rainbows” They work with children that have parents that are divorced, or lost a parent, or have a parent that is an alcoholic or drug use in the family. I am going to give your book to the women that is in charge of this wonderful group. If she likes as much as I did, I plan on ordering some to give to the group.
Thank you so much for writing this book. Please keep writing.
Marvel Boyd
Hi Marvel,
Thank you so much for your kind words and your encouragement. It truly made my day. Encouragement like this keeps me fueled up on determination to keep writing and doing what I can for this cause. Thank you for the great work you do within your church community. What a blessing you are!
Jody
Hi Jody,
Just watched your video and was deeply moved by your honesty.
There is a beautiful balance in your narrative. You have succeeded in conveying to people something of the immense pain and confusion you experienced growing up with adults who were emotionally crippled by alcoholism and codependence, but without compromising the abiding sense of love and respect you feel for your mum and dad.
As an adult child of an alcoholic myself, and someone who has had a rather unhealthy relationship with alcohol, there was much in your story which had me nodding my head and smiling. I benefit so much from hearing other people’s stories, and always feel a sense of connectedness with those who’s recovery narratives echo the same sense of aloneness and loneliness which permeated so much of my own childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.
Anyway, keep up the good work! I only discovered your blog today, and am looking forward to reading more about your experience here in the weeks and months to come.
Many thanks
Hi Will,
Thank you so very much for the encouraging note. I hope you are well today and making great strides in your ACOA journey and with your own relationship with alcohol. Thank you.
Thank you Jody. I grew up with an alcoholic father. Both my parents are deceased now. I also was a good student, etc. I became a caregiver until now I am 57 years old divorced and suffer with depression and anxiety and fibromyalgia and high blood pressure. My sisters still want to keep me in a scapegoat kind of role. They also put me down a lot.
I even took 369 hours of drug and alcohol counseling classes thinking that I could do that but it wasn’t a good idea. I am way too sensitive of a person with too much empathy to do that kind of work.
If you pray, please pray that I will recover. I never realized I was a codependent and I am trying o overcome that too.
Hi Mary, thank you for sharing. I am so sorry about your experience and your health conditions. Loved ones can be the most toxic people in our lives, can’t they? Sending prayers and well wishes your way for a recovery. Keep the faith and hold onto hope.
The best book is the ACA red book. I also recommend Pete Walker’s Complex PTSD.
Hello Jody
I just wanted to say thank you. I listened to one of your YouTube videos about being an adult child of an alcoholic.
The things you talked about mirrored my life and my experiences in so many ways I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was like listening to my own childhood and a very similar experience with university and self confidence. I am lucky enough to have found the same peace that you seem to be finding, that we can make our lives our own and don’t have to live with the guilt, shame and feelings of responsibility anymore. Thank you for what you do and for speaking out. I will pray for you and all others who face the challenges of being an adult child of an alcoholic.
I just found this and would like to receive your news letter please. I am dealing with my husband’s “fun” Aunt who wants a drinking partner in my husband. They are all alcoholics. She actually defended drinking in the car after a day of work. I do really like her in small doses but she is in town trying to help with my mother in law who has Alzheimer’s. It’s such a mess of codependantsy. Any suggestions? Thank you Wendy
Hi Wendy, these situations are complicated. Fortunately, it sounds like it’s only a temporary situation. It took me a long time to realize that I have no control over anyone else but me. Whenever I find myself feeling anxious about someone else’s drinking, I remind myself of this fact. I can only control my own safety and serenity.
Hi Anna, thank you so much for your note. I’m glad you found the content valuable, albeit unfortunately, familiar for you. Every time I hear someone speak about their experiences with a loved one with addiction, I have the same reaction: OH THAT’S MY STORY! I hope you are actively building the life you want and deserve!