It was the long periods of happiness that really threw me for a loop. I can see now that in the last two years those periods became farther and fewer between and the selfishness and lying became the primary component of the relationship.
Addiction is a progressive disease and continues to get worse over time and sadly, most don't put the drug down until the pain of using becomes greater than the fear of stopping.
It's very sad what addiction does to our loved ones. My son has been addicted to drugs for almost 20 years. He had periods of recovery, even some very good recovery of about 3 years, but sadly he relapsed and continued with the revolving door of active addiction/recovery/relapse. He has been missing, lost in his addiction somewhere for the past 10 years.
Along the way he had a few girlfriends, all of them nice girls whose lives got very messed up during their relationship with him. I always felt bad about that and really hate that addiction can take a kind, loving, thoughtful, loving young man like my son and turn him into a person who stole and lied and became violent and someone I just didn't know anymore.
Please give that some thought on days when you may have regrets. You have a chance to escape all this and have a better life, a happy and peaceful life you deserve. If you were one of those dear girls who lived with my son I would say run for the hills, girl, and don't look back.
Hugs from my heart to yours.