Our family has this unspoken rule that we don't talk about my brother's addiction, even when he shows up high to family dinners or disappears for weeks, and we're all enabling this weird performance where we pretend everything is fine. My parents think talking about it will make it worse, I think our silence is making it worse, and meanwhile my brother is drowning while we argue about whether to throw him a life preserver.
More people experience this than they realize.
The instinct to protect can become a form of abandonment when families choose comfortable lies over difficult love.
“Where Are You with Attraction — the science and the mystery?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.