My family could have its own reality tv show.

[Kaleva]

About the only thing that hasn't happened yet is murder. Here's a brief list of what has happened recently or is happening:

Suicide attempts
Infidelity
Drug addiction
Extorting adult children for drug money
Alcoholism
Spending time in a psychiatric ward
Getting caught transporting controlled substances
Threesomes, group sex and other kinky stuff
Having sex with a drug dealer in exchange for drugs
Welfare fraud

[LiberalAndProud]

1. So, are you okay?

Keep your head, even though everyone around you is losing theirs.

[Kaleva]

3. I'm fine. Thanks for asking!

It's my wife's family that is the source of all the drama and I can sort of stand back from it all while giving my wife moral and emotional support. Even while rushing my one of my sister-in-laws to the emergency room as she was throwing up in the car after she swallowed a bunch of pills, I remained rather calm.

[ThomasQED]

2. All I can say is...

I hope your family is realllllly big.

Sorry :-( Hope things get better.

[Kaleva]

4. It's a small but intense family

I think the problem can be traced back a couple of generations to a man who was a mean drunk who for years, sexually abused his daughters. The mother knew what was going on but did nothing to stop it and she had numerous affairs. The girls grew up to be women who had alcohol problems, despised men, married men they could dominate, had affairs and had cold relationships with their own children. These children became adults with many of the same issues. My wife was in therapy and counseling for many years until last year when her therapist told her she didn't need counseling anymore. I think back to how different my wife is now, emotionally, compared to when I first met and married her. She has managed to break the cycle while her siblings and cousins continue on their destructive path.

[ThomasQED]

9. That's good to hear

Not that she had to go through all that, or what the rest of the family has endured, but it's good to hear that she was able to break the cycle.

It's horrible how much one person can affect the lives of so many others.

[cherokeeprogressive]

5. Keep your chin up. I'd bet that no family in the US is exempt from having the same problems.

I know mine isn't.

My Dad's brother, someone I've never met, murdered his wife on the steps of the courthouse when she walked out with a restraining order in her hand.

[Kaleva]

6. Real life provides more drama then fiction ever could.

[cherokeeprogressive]

8. So true. More fiction is based on real life situations than we'll ever know.

Think about it... there was recently a Fire Captain who was caught STARTING fires so he could write a book based on their outcomes.

No matter how bad it gets, no matter what carnage you see when you look around your own family; there is someone who has it worse. Somebody whose life is more screwed up because of someone else's indiscretions or bad acts.

Keep your chin up, do your best, and no one can fault you in the end for bad acts perpetrated by someone else, no matter how responsible you feel.

[pitohui]

7. well yeah that's why they call it family

i mean what you listed...that's just "standard" ain't it i hope!???

my best friend's family has all that shit PLUS murder(s!) PLUS child hooker rape on cocaine and more...i wish he would sell his story but he's the south, we pretend we don't talk abt that shit

another close friend of mine had a wonderful story, dad killed his mother, miracle crystal cure from cancer, encounters with space brothers, being a whatever special forces in laos during vietnam, EVERYTHING!!! if this guy wrote his life story it would have been the story of the human race, NOTHING would have been left out