Thank you for your courage and openness in sharing this part of your journey. It helps us all understand both ourselves and our loved ones better.

I'm grateful that in my family there hasn't been addiction to substances to deal with. Though I would say my family is seriously addicted to TV. That's a real addiction with real harm, but it is normalized in this society. There has definitely been a lot of trauma in the family's history, and that may be why there is the escapism in TV. Still, with or without addiction, self-destructive behavior touches every family, it seems.