""Don't trust, don't talk, don't feel" has long been the credo of children of alcoholics. Now, The Family Secret brings together the stories of adult children of alcoholics, as they write about their childhood experiences. The selections demonstrate that alcoholism is a disease without prejudice or conscience. It strikes well-to-do families like Mariette Hartley's, who describes her father's descent into alcoholism as beginning on the 5:31 commuter train to Greenwich. And it affects struggling families like Louie Anderson's. He writes, "To me, 'wait till your father gets home' has always been the single most terrifying sentence anyone could utter.""--BOOK JACKET. "The Family Secret is divided into four sections, representing some of the broader truths about alcoholism and its effect on families. Part One, called "Keeping the Family Secret," provides shattering examples of how families hide the disease from others. Part Two, "Living in Fear," illustrates how alcoholism and domestic abuse often go hand in hand. Part Three, "Early Exit," is about the untimely deaths brought about by alcoholism and their often tragic consequences. And Part Four, "It Runs in the Family," shows how the children of alcoholics are at a much greater risk of becoming alcoholics themselves."--BOOK JACKET. "Ultimately, The Family Secret shows the ability of the human spirit to triumph over adversity. Even when these adult children of alcoholics realized that they had indeed inherited their parents' disease, they were determined not to suffer the same illness they had seen destroy their parents' lives. As Migs Woodside writes in her foreword, "Perhaps most important of all, The Family Secret shows that children touched by family alcoholism can have a happier and brighter future after all.""--BOOK JACKET.