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Old 01-24-2011, 02:43 PM
  # 19 (permalink)  
lillamy
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I didn't stick around to experience my spouse's sobriety. For me, there was too much pain and hurt, and I also knew (having worked with many alcoholics throughout my career, active and recovering) that sobriety=a fresh hell of its own.

One good A friend almost lost everything -- but is 25 years post-rehab still happily married to the same woman he almost lost. Or, as she would tell it, "happily married again"...

I don't know how many times I went to Al-Anon sporadically before I committed. I remember thinking that those people weren't like me (some of them are bona fide crazy, you know) and that maybe they had problems, but my only problem was that drunk I was married to. And they weren't helping me to make him quit drinking! But once I committed... well, the stories started making sense. Started feeling familiar. And for the longest time, I didn't even care about "the steps" or any such thing -- it just felt like a cool shower on a hot day to step into that room where you could say "I love my husband more than anything else on earth, and I want him to DIE!" and people would start laughing... I mean, clearly, that's NOT a normal reaction -- but in that room, it is a completely normal thing to say... and everyone needs at least one place where people "get" you.

And if not Al-Anon (it's like an old childhood friend to me -- I love it and get mad about every other time), you could choose to find a counselor. Because now, you're in the situation where everyone's giving your wife kudos for just doing what you've been doing all along (which it's easy to start resenting), namely being sober, and she has her support group, and all you have is... this feeling that "wait a minute -- how come SHE's happy and I'm miserable???"
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