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Old 12-16-2005, 02:18 AM
  # 4 (permalink)  
minnie
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: England
Posts: 3,410
Hi Matt and welcome to SR. My heart goes out to the two of you - I think early sobriety is very hard for couples to deal with for all sorts of reasons. Although I only know this by witnessing what other people go through, as my ex didn't get into recovery for any length of time.

I'll jot down some of my thoughts after reading your posts and hopefully they'll help. If not, just take what you like and leave the rest.

Your wife will be experiencing the whole range of emotions at the moment. Happy that you're getting help, scared in case it doesn't work, angry because of all she's been through, unhappy that all her efforts didn't work and many more besides.

Without any education on alcoholism, she will not understand what motivates alcoholics to seek help nor will she understand what we call The Three C's - she didn't Cause it, she can't Control it and she can't Cure it.

Having said all of that, wasn't it the fact that she said the marriage was over that spurred you into seeking help? Does she realise this? I know she probably thinks "why did it have to come to that?", but sometimes it just does. In fact, so many recovering alcoholics say that it took their spouse leaving them to see just how deep in the addiction they had got. *edit* oops - I got my dates wrong and see that she made her decision after your sobriety date. Sorry. I'll leave that bit in - it might be helpful to someone else.

The other thing I wanted to mention is the roles we play in relationships. In ones affected by alcoholism, these are quite defined, with the spouse often playing the rescuer and the alcoholic being a scapegoat. Once sobriety enters the picture, the roles change and this can be very hard to deal with.

There is a book published by Al-anon called "Living with Sobriety" which you can get by calling them on 020 7403 0888. Might make a nice Xmas pressie?

Good luck, Matt.
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