Originally Posted by lillamy

I said for years that "alcoholism is only one aspect of his personality" and I defended him when people asked why I stayed with him. Because it's true. But it is a progressive disease. If you don't get treatment, help, support -- it only goes one direction. The alcoholic ate everything else he was. Even before the really scary event that finally woke me up enough that I left, I knew that the man I met and fell in love with had been eaten by this disease. I knew he wasn't coming back. As much as I would have liked him to.