Originally Posted by
FiftyPence 
We can't communicate. We're both desperately lonely in the relationship, a loneliness that's so much worse than simply not having a partner. I've gone through a classic process of trying to control her drinking, negotiating with her, ranting at her, pleading with her, harranguing her, co-operating with her, yet she still insists the problem is not serious, that she knows what she's doing.
I feel like I could have written those words myself.
I've finally arrived at a place where I realise that this pattern we're in can last 20 or 30 years, as described by many in their own experiences here. I do feel now that the sane thing, the healthy thing to do after 18 months of inhuman stress, is to leave the relationship, and with it my cherished notions of family, of growing old together, of companionship and friendship.
I think I'm finally getting to that place. Granted, he already left me, but I can still "leave" the fictious relationship I had created and have been hanging onto.