That was so true for me! Of course, I didn't realize it at the time, but with one of my ex A's we got into that mother/child situation. I'm not sure when it happened, exactly, but I remember thinking he was acting very childlike, and I looked on him more as a child than as a man. I also know I wasn't attracted to him anymore because ... well... because I thought of him as a child!
It's so amazing to me that this book - The Dilemma of the Alcoholic Marriage, was written in 1971 and all of it is still applicable and important today. I also find it interesting that there were enough people who struggled with these very issues that someone actually WROTE A BOOK about it from a recovery perspective.
I really love this program.