The alcoholic in my family drank and drank and drank. The more they drank, the deeper it got. Until finally they were in their own sea of alcohol.

Then one day, for whatever reason, they stepped out of their sea. When they stepped out of the sea, they shook themselves off, just like a dog does when he gets out of the water. When they shook themselves off, it got all over everyone else in the family.
We didn’t want it.
We didn’t choose it.
We couldn't control what was happening.
It just happen.

It left us with so many things. As the alcoholic shook off the sea we all just stood there and FROZE. It was like we couldn't move. We thought we had all been painted this bright annoying RED color, that EVERYONE could see.

It made us want to hide. It made us feel different. It made us ashamed. Then came the secrets. We didn't want anyone to think our family was different, so we separated ourselves. They call it isolation. We actually hid in our own home.

We were now locked in our house. So it was there that the sea grew higher and higher. As time went by the sea started to fill our house. It affected all of us more than anyone would admit. In our house, where we thought we were safe, we were now isolated. Locked in.

More time went by and it seemed to be getting deeper and deeper. We were now wading in the sea....it wasn't just on us it had become part of us. As time went on the wading became harder and we had to use our arms to stay a float. But no matter how much we tried to fix things....they didn't change....we had NO CONTROL over what was happening to us.

It was a HEAVY sea and it was getting harder and harder to survive in it. No matter what we did, it just kept getting higher and higher. We were treading the water and doing all we could to keep our heads OUT of the sea. We didn't know what else to do.

But then it happen.... We were now OVER our heads in it. We would come up for air when we could......but Life just kept getting harder and harder. We couldn't seem to get up for air as easy. We didn't know how to survive. We were affected whether we wanted to admit it or not.

We had no control. It hurt us. It made us hate. It made us sad. It made us become someone we didn't even know. We fought it and tried to change it. We tried to control it. But we couldn't. But there was one day when we realized. It was okay because we didn't have to own it. It wasn't ours to own. We finally figured out...these three very important things.

We didn't cause it. We didn't choose it. We couldn't cure it.

What is IT you ask? What is this sea made of?
It is alcoholism.