Journey Through Family Alcoholism

Alberta Sequeira
Tell us about your (or your loved one's) recovery journey. What has been the most rewarding part?

From the loss of Richard and Lori, I have become a speaker and an author on "The Effect of Alcoholism on the Whole Family."

I love speaking to the addicted behind closed doors. My goal is to give them faith and courage knowing they can recover.

Do you have a message for the Shatterproof community?

Believe you can reach your goal if you open up with your pain and hurt emotion.

I am on the other end, being a woman who lost a husband and daughter to their addiction.

Being young in our marriage, I had no knowledge or education on alcohol abuse.

What would I do different today? I'd never be an enabler again. It only brings them deeper into their addition.

My second change would be to listen more than doing all the talking or yelling. We don't learn what each other needs as a family.

The last: I would not believe in throwing them out to reach rock bottom. It was their death.