A world of contradictions, wherein everything is gray and almost nothing is black and white.

I am becoming used to an overwhelming, grinding mixture of anger and worry.

How innocent we are of our mistakes and how we responsible we are for them.

An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.

How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?

The hopeful part about that is when you do have that help, you will feel better. It still doesn't make this easy. Nothing makes this easy, but you can make better decisions.

Anyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself.