You might be aware -- especially if, like me, your family is Irish and ostensibly Catholic -- of an unspoken rule. Your favorite aunt, the one who always shows up to Christmas dinner with a lazy grin and the smell of Chanel No. 5 and mouth wash... Well, the rule is -- and you never discussed this exactly, but you know what I mean -- you never mention the fact that Aunt (add name here) likes a drink. Or ten.
And partly because of this rule, though most people know that addiction is a genetic disease, it retains its aura of quiet shame and imminent scandal. ...