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Old 10-23-2016, 01:05 PM
  # 17 (permalink)  
LexieCat
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: South Jersey
Posts: 16,633
Yeah, just to chime in here. I've been in two marriages to alcoholics and am eight years sober, myself, and have known hundreds of alcoholics in various stages of drinking/recovery. Not one of them stopped before s/he was good and ready.

If you start managing her drinking to protect her from the consequences you are doing her no favors. If you think she will be grateful to you and determined to stop drinking because of her "close call," think again. All she learns is that you won't let her mess up her life too badly and she can keep drinking the way she wants to.

I know many people who had to lose virtually everything before they were able to stop. Not all, by any means--I finally DID scare myself into sobriety without too much significant damage to my external life (inside, I was falling apart). But that's relatively rare, in my experience. And if I'd had someone making it safe for me to keep on the way I was, I probably would have gone on longer.
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