****Spoiler Alert****

I was told about Shameless from some friends a while back, and I definitely jumped on the bandwagon late in the game. While Shameless is known for being wildly inappropriate, racist, sexist and extremely dysfunctional, I think you can actually learn a lot about life from this crazy show. Here's 8 lessons about life you can learn from the cast of Shameless.

1. Alcoholism Ruins A Family

As if this one isn't obvious already, you see first hand how alcoholism affects both a person with the illness and the family. Frank was both a drug addict and a drunk, who had some other major issues, but the deep issue for him was the alcohol. He spent the very little income he received from the government on beer tabs, spent most nights passed out on a bench some where and of course needed a new liver. His alcoholism greatly affects his family because he is always too drunk to be there to support them. He is straight up a terrible father, and for him it's because of his addiction.

2. Family Always Comes To Bat For Each Other

Whether it is blood relatives or friends that became family, the characters in Shameless always come together for each other. Whether that is beating up some guy that touched your sister, coming up with bail money, or simply providing a warm place to sleep. While often times they all hate each other or get mad at one another, you know for sure that they would drop anything to be there for each other, most of the time they did.

3. Dirty Money Is Still Money

One thing I always found funny was that Carl had enough money from drug dealing to pay for the house in cash, but Fiona wouldn't accept the money originally because she said it was dirty money. This is funny because pretty much all of their money is dirty money. Whether its from Jimmy/ Steve stealing cars, Frank getting social security from a dead relative or faking disability and not to mention how much they steal to survive. Not that I am condoning that way of acquiring money, but the moral here is money is money and when you are that poor you can't be picky of where it came from.

4. Mental Illness Is Treated So Wrong

When Ian started to show signs of Bipolar Disorder I was so frustrated because that is the last thing that kid needed. Mickey and his family tried to handle it without medications which ended up being an even bigger disaster. Once Ian finally got on medications regularly he really improved, actually becoming an EMT. He lost his job there because they said they don't hire people with mental illness'. This is all too real in this society, and like Ian says in his speech to get his job back, was that you wouldn't tell that to someone who is physically handicap because its wrong, so a mental handicap should be treated the same. Through out the show you see a huge flaw in our society with how mental illness is treated.

5. Teen Pregnancy Is Real And Life Ruining

Debbie got pregnant and decided to keep the baby and while I am absolutely pro life, I secretly hoped she would abort the baby because I knew it would be a mess. Shameless is pretty open about teen pregnancy in schools and many of Debbie's friends were pregnant at 15 and trying to balance school with being a parent. It seemed like the teachers at their school were not very accommodating for new mothers, offering online school that was nearly impossible. It seems like they just want them to drop out of school instead of giving them a reason to stay, and a fighting chance in this society.

6. You Aren't Where You Grew Up

When Lip went off to college I was so happy for him, he is extremely intelligent and I was just hoping that he would finally make a name for himself. He is the first of pretty much anyone in the community to graduate high school, let alone go to college. He messes it up pretty bad, between screwing his professor, dabbling with alcoholism like his father, and smashing his mentors windows, but despite that, he still proves that you don't have to be where you came from. At any point you can break the cycle and be better than the family you grew up in or the community you are surrounded with. I learned that you don't have to give up your potential because everyone around you did.

7. Daddy Issues Are For Real

Daddy issues should honestly be the name of the show because it seems that everyone has a terrible relationship with their dad, which in turn makes them make horrible decisions with men. Like Karen, who had such big issues with her dad that she actually screwed Frank Gallagher (still eww) and made a sex tape of it, Fiona is constantly in bed with a new guy and always ruins things with the good ones, Debbie got pregnant so that she could be a part of Derek's life which ended up backfiring when he left town, and Mandy put up with abuse from men because she was so used to her dad doing it to women. It definitely makes me sad because I know there are so many woman who have bad relationships with their dads and have greatly impacted their view on men, daddy issues are way too real.

8. Everyone's Got Skeletons

What I love the most about Shameless is how real it is, well I mean kind of. I feel like there is something everyone can relate to, because all of our families are a little messed up anyways. I like that it isn't the typical "south side" or "trailer park" show, this is the neighbor next door, or a block over. The show covers, drug dealers, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, sex and drug addiction, teen pregnancy, abortions, overdoses, jail, foster care, LGBT, immigration, mental health and ultimately poverty. It really opened my eyes that desperate times call for desperate measures, and you will do just about anything to make the ends meet for your family. While this show is both a hilarious and sad hot mess, we've all got our own hot mess behind closed doors.