If you mean related to drinking it's helpful to be able to identify with them as opposed to comparing. I was told when comparing just add the word YET, Your Eligible Too. Not all backgrounds are the same but the stories end up with a common theme. Our lives became unmanageable as a result of our continued drinking, it doesn't get better. Many of us reject what's happening to us by our great, to ourselves, rationalizations of the real world in us.
BE WELL