View Single Post
Old 11-20-2008, 07:47 AM
  # 4 (permalink)  
freya
Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 1,636
My partner is a recovering alcoholic and I am a "drinker" LOL!!!! Not much of a drinker, probably, by the standards of most other people around here, but I do have a drink occasionally. We've been together for over 12 years....the only thing I have to consider when it comes to deciding if I'm going to have a drink in any given situation is whether or not I'm gonna want to kiss her within the next few hours, because the smell of alcohol does bother her.

My partner was sober when I met her, so that probably makes our situation a little easier, but, ultimately, the truth is that her recovery does not and cannot safely and healthily depend on what I do related to drinking or anything esle, just like my own recovery as an Al Anon cannot depend on whether or not she drinks, is dry, or is sober.

I guess, the most important thing I can really say to you is that your own recovery must always come first because, without that, everything else is at risk. And your own recovery must came one day at a time -- which means that worrying about how it might or might not effect your relationship at some point in the future and trying to control that is probably not a really helpful use of your time and energy. One of the things that I find to be really helpful in working my program and keeping myself out of futurizing and catastrophizing is just to remind myself that, if I take care of myself and work my recovery by doing the next right thing one day (or hour, or minute or second) at a time, whatever the future brings is surely going to be better than what it will bring if I don't.

Good luck -- freya
freya is offline