What is Daddy Thirst?
For nearly two decades, the founder of the Daddy Thirst® project, the Rev. Dr. April C. Wells has explored the painful realities of women and men who fail to receive attention, care, and love from their biological, step, and/or adoptive fathers —a condition she termed “Daddy Thirst®" in 1993.
Definition: The Daddy Thirst® project defines “daddy thirst®” as the longing or yearning of children and adults for physical, emotional, and/or spiritual connection and wholeness resulting from the physical, emotional, or spiritual absence, abandonment, abuse, neglect, or estrangement by a father through separation, divorce, incarceration, death, adoption, and/or addiction. Often experienced as rejection and betrayal, the condition of Daddy Thirst® can produce feelings of depression, anger, and rage
associated with unresolved grief, which can impact personal and professional relationships.
Definition: The Daddy Thirst® project defines “daddy thirst®” as the longing or yearning of children and adults for physical, emotional, and/or spiritual connection and wholeness resulting from the physical, emotional, or spiritual absence, abandonment, abuse, neglect, or estrangement by a father through separation, divorce, incarceration, death, adoption, and/or addiction. Often experienced as rejection and betrayal, the condition of Daddy Thirst® can produce feelings of depression, anger, and rage
associated with unresolved grief, which can impact personal and professional relationships.
Who can have Daddy Thirst?
Women and men who grew up without a father experience daddy thirst®. However, daddy thirst® also is experienced by women and men who grew up with a fatherr that was excessively absent physically due to work, military duty, school, incarceration, or death at an early age; or excessively absent emotionally due to an inability to connect through love, care, and attention.