"I told you I understood you," she reminded him. Had said exactly those words when she'd been drunk, herself.
"Love isn't easy. It takes work. So work at it. Apologize for being an asshole. Talk about things. It's the only way they'll get better. Trust me...avoiding a difficult discussion doesn't make the problem go away. It just makes it worse."
If her mother had had a discussion with Thea when her father had first died, she might not have partied and boozed and done drugs for the next five years.