Old 03-20-2011, 07:27 AM
  # 30 (permalink)  
LexieCat
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: South Jersey
Posts: 16,633
Hi, Pandora,

I remember cleaning up blood a lot of times, dealing with drunk friends, yadayada.

My suggestion is this. You won't be ready to leave (or even to consider leaving) until you are ready. Period. That was true for every one of us. He won't be ready to quit drinking (or even to consider it) until he is ready. That is true of every alcoholic I have ever known (and I've been married to two of them, and am an alcoholic in recovery now, myself).

So please stick around here and keep posting. But most of all, READ. And keep an open mind. When some of the things happen that we predict will happen (and I promise you, they will), keep an open mind to changing your "I could never"s. That's all. Just keep an open mind.

Realizing what you are dealing with is a process. To help you understand what you are dealing with, I highly recommend that you read AA's Big Book, an online version of which is here. The first 164 pages describe what happens in an alcoholic's mind, and what is necessary for him or her to recover. The rest of the book is personal stories about recovery from alcoholism. The Big Book was the first thing I ever read about alcoholism, and it was a real eye-opener.

The other book I recommend that you read is "Under the Influence", which you can order online.

FWIW, your boyfriend sounds a lot like my first husband, who took several months to go to AA on his own (after I split up with him for awhile), but has now been sober for 31 years. The only thing I did that I think helped him was to give him a copy of the Big Book. Nothing else I did helped him. And even with that, as I said, it was several more months and a breakup before he got sober.

With my second husband, he almost died of liver failure, went to AA for awhile, and then went back to drinking himself to death. My first husband was ready to quit, the second one wasn't. Either way, nothing I did, personally, made any difference.

I highly recommend that you get involved in Al-Anon. It will help you regain your mental balance and help you to avoid doing things that might get in the way of his being ready to recover (avoiding enabling, for example).
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