Denying this disease does not make it go away. I have watched this disease wrap its tentacles around three generations now. I have watched each generation pretend that it wasn’t all that bad, that it didn’t do all that much damage, that they didn’t really need help. But they did. I have seen my family not drink or drug and imagine that that meant we were not sick. They couldn’t see that the relationship issues that we all suffer from are related to this disease. This disease takes many forms because addiction is traumatizing to all concerned, and trauma creates emotional and psychological problems that do not necessarily get better by themselves.

 I can get help

To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.

Oscar Wilde