Alcoholism is causing me to lose relationships with two family members, plus it has caused severe stress among many other of my family members. For a long time, because my wife barely drinks, and I barely drink, I was able to ignore the situation. However, it has recently become clear how much I've lost because of others' drinking problems. I don't think my situation is unusual, either. I suspect many of us have relatives who are alcoholics, and that most of us have found a way to avoid those people and to minimize their impacts on us. It's often easy to ignore the health impacts on those of us who don't even drink, and yet, it somehow spirals farther than I once thought possible.

I wish more people talked about how dangerous alcohol truly is. Yes, it can be perfectly fine to drink. However, it also commonly leads to severe outcomes that are often outside of our control, and that harm us even if we don't even drink alcohol.