I found it SO liberating to talk about my family's addiction problems, even with casual acquaintances. When someone would ask me "How are you doing?", I would say "Well, my son is looking at prison time for drug charges, my daughter went out drinking Saturday nite and we found her in jail Sunday afternoon, my wife passes out every night from drinking, I'm a wreck. How are YOU doing?". More times than I can remember the reply was "You too!!". Ours is not an uncommon problem. Many of the people I opened up to related immediately. By the end of the conversation we both felt better. For those that couldn't relate to my troubles, well, I still felt better for having opened up. The truth really does set you free.