Category - Family & Friends

Confronting Marbles And Ponies

Compulsive Gambler Joel’s first bet was, as it often is, during childhood.  Joel was a fantastic marble player; and not only one the games among the kids, he would up winning all the marbles and taking them home.  But as a...

She Never Knew He Gambled

Andy is a compulsive gambler.  His game of choice was poker, but he would gamble on anything he could.  And all he would do is lose money.  He barely if ever won.  Andy’s legitimate creditors – namely the bank –...

Denial

Alcohol has been pervasive in Laura’s family; she even recently learned they made their money when first arriving in the U.S. by importing whiskey.  But booze made Laura’s childhood complicated.  Her bi-polar mother...

Couldn’t Understand

Irene is a “double winner” – part of a special group of people who are members of the fellowship of both Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon. Both her parents and her brothers were daily drinkers. Her father, a...

Addicts Anyway

Nobody drank in Dylan’s immediate family, though alcoholism had wreaked havoc in prior generations of the family.  And while nobody drank, Dylan’s mother was in recovery for substance abuse.  Though Dylan could swear...

Screwed Up

Ananda entered recovery via Al-Anon after wanting to end her own life.   Growing up in a home with alcoholic and drug-addicted parents, Ananda believes her  “hippies” parents intended to love her but really...

Mending Their Broken Wings

Greg has been married three times, to two different women. He married his first wife twice. It seemed to him that all his relationships with women would end the same way; they would leave after he put his heart and soul into...

Loving Versus Rescuing

Like many women, Petra thought love was “taking care of someone”. She always picked men who “needed rescuing”. Petra’s boyfriend was an alcoholic, and she thought he was the only man she could ever...

Fix Dad

Katya’s father is a drug addict. He has years of sobriety under his belt, but the damage done with the relationship with daughter is through. In fact, it was Katya’s father who first brought her to Al-Anon to begin...

I Just Was

Kelly was born and raised in a family of addicts.  Her parents still drink.  Her three brothers are drug addicts, and only two of them are in recovery. Kelly says her parents were functional alcoholics, but relied on alcohol to...