There will be many people in our lives that we will love and care about ... but we realize we cannot live or share our lives with them. Like a moth to a flame ... if we get too close, we will get burned.
An active alcoholic puts everyone and everything else in second place, they will not behave in reasonable and rationale ways and will keep their lives and ours in constant turmoil and chaos. We cannot change their course in life ... only our own. We have one life to live, we must value it by not willingly putting ourselves in a never ending whirlwind of irrational, destructive behavior. Addiction is cruel and consuming to the alcoholic and to everyone close to them.