When someone is addicted to alcohol or drugs, that person's problems affect the entire family. The family members often share some of the addicted person's beliefs and behave in similar ways. The term "codependence" refers to these shared beliefs and behaviors. Codependence has become a popular topic of discussion, and bookstores are full of works on the subject. Many of these books deal with the emotional damage suffered during childhood and the need to heal the "inner child."

Although currently popular, the idea that alcohol and drug problems affect family members is not new. In a 1973 book called I'll Quit Tomorrow, Vernon Johnson wrote that, "While there may be only one alcoholic in a family, the whole family suffers from the alcoholism. For every harmfully dependent person, most often there are two, three, or even more people immediately around him who are just as surely victims of the...