The irony of regret
“An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.” The irony is painful as it shows how different in their essences these addictions are. At some subconscious level an addict feels that he is wrong, but can do nothing about it. A drug addict feels the power of drugs and somehow wants to compensate the troubles he is making, thus “looking for a stolen wallet” is just a poor attempt to show his regret.
Ironic lack of knowledge
A complete awareness of one’s problem is difficult to be reached, even for the loved ones. A person can never understand the other, and it is the psychologically proven fact, as an individuality has the own pack of experiences and opinions. Thus, it is difficult to comprehend the real state of a situation in which another person is involved. And it is simply because of lack of knowledge, and the ironic is the thing that this knowledge cannot be acquired.
“We deny the severity of our loved one's problem not because we are naive, but because we can't know.”
Two individuals within one person
The author ironically put a rhetorical question: “How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?” The question requires no answer, but it depicts how an addict’s personality splits into halves.
Lack of sleep may have different reasons
The author ironically notices that “addicts are agitated and confused, and most stop eating and sleeping. Parents of addicts don’t sleep, either”, but it is clear that the reasons for the parents’ inability to sleep are depression, uneasiness and constant fear.
Prejudices
“Only girls wear tights. - Nic responds, "Uh,uh. Superman wears tights.”
Society has a very negative trait of sticking to prejudices and depending on other people’s opinions. And the given quote shows that there always is another angle of perception.
