Addiction

 

Addiction is lack of freedom, like a ball and chain 

tied to the ankles, it totally enslaves the person who

suffers from it.

But what does it do to the family of those affected? 

A lot of damage.

All that has been suffered at the hands of the addict 

reverberates  for years afterwards and leaves in it's 

wake shipwrecks of families.

Nobody escapes, due to the intensity of the addiction 

the person will do everything to bring others into their

own clingy web of dependency, creating false ideas of 

"we are in league, you too are stuck, it is not just me", 

thus manipulating others to believe that they are not 

autonomous and free to do what they want, which 

helps to confirm the sick person in his belief that he is 

reasonable and normal, because he has support from 

others, sometimes from within his own family.

They usually do not manage to catch the whole family 

in the web, but even one or two will suffice, to maintain 

their position. They need to be seen as justified, but their  

actions are caused by their addiction, because in reality 

they are incapable of actually having genuine concern 

for others, not even their own children.

Constant manipulation and blackmail are necessary.

 

Alcoholism breaks, degrades, lies, terrorizes, steals,

divides families, it is a scourge in families and societies.

The serious alcoholic is mentally ill, his actions does not

correspond to the real world, and this is evident to others,

but the effects on the rest of the family's mental well being 

must not be forgotten.