Originally Posted by
Bullfrog 
I will say that I've felt that thankfulness, but only after working the steps. Mainly because I've finally begun healing from lifelong tendencies toward codependency/anxiety/doormat-ism. These traits were there long before my A entered the scene, and I don't believe that I would have entered the doors and sought recovery until the chaos of alcoholism forced me to.
But when I first started, I seriously thought those members were nuts. But interestingly, I found them the most serene... So I was curious and stayed.
This was my experience as well. I was pretty much raised to be codependent in any relationship or situation I encountered in life. It was my time with an alcoholic that finally propelled me into recovery, just because it was easier to put a name to the issue. I originally started looking for help because he was an alcoholic, not because I thought I needed it for myself.
We actually talked about the whole "grateful for the alcoholic/alcoholism" thing in one of my meetings.
What I took away was that people weren't so much grateful for alcoholism as a disease but rather that they were grateful for it as the catalyst that got them into recovery. I've never heard anyone say "I'm grateful that my loved one suffers from alcoholism."