puckettcg

I'm not an alcoholic, but I am married to one. On Friday, I posted in the Family section a question about how to get him to leave. After spending 8 days in the hospital, 4 in ICU, due to DT's, he got out, and still couldn't stay sober. He would go a week and then relapse, and then finally about two weeks ago it got to almost daily again - only he would try to hide it buy buying those 10% alcohol 24 oz Joose beers and guzzling them. So, I finally told him, I wanted him to leave. It kind of shocked him - he'd asked me before if I wanted him to leave and I'd always say I wanted him to stop drinking, but this time I told him I wanted him to leave - he looked at me and said are you kidding me? I told him when he got out of detox that I would stay with him and be his support to quit; while I'd threatened in the past to leave him or make him leave, I never did. But, it seemed like he just stopped trying. This time I said it and meant it and went back downstairs.

A little while later, he came downstairs and said he couldn't live without me, and that he needed me - everyone on the board probably knows the drill. He promised to try harder, and I kept asking him what he was going to do - but he couldn't just say not drink. I kept him asking why he couldn't stop - and he said he didn't know but that he needed help. Finally, he said he would go into one of those 30 day inpatient treatment programs, but it had to be after College football season.

Here's the thing. I believe he wants to stop. He put himself into DT's because he just decided he didn't want to drink again - I didn't. He held out for 3 days of hallucinations, awful shakes, and sleeplessness, and finally on the 4th day I convinced him to go to the hospital (with a neighbors help). They said it was the worst case of DT's they'd ever seen.

So, he hasn't had anything to drink since Friday - thankfully no sign of DT's but even though he couldn't stop drinking, he was no where near his earlier consumption which is probably why. He has agreed to give up everything - no car keys, no money, no credit cards - no ability to purchase alcohol. I even took all the change out of the house (hunted down every penny, nickel, dime and quarter in the house). And he's agreed to give them up at least until January. I even hide my keys and lock up my purse. His idea (although I had previously taken them away for a week).

I don't know when the cravings stop - but that's what he's struggling with. For now, I guess I'm helping - I think. Or maybe I'm enabling? I don't know, but he's not drinking, and I'm hoping after a few months of this the cravings will have subsided and he'll be stronger on his own.