A new face here
 

I have spent the past couple of weeks reading posts and gathering the courage to register and introduce myself. This site has helped tremendiously in my search to validate my feelings. So thank you to everyone who has been brave enough to share their stories.

A bit about my story: I am currently involved with an Alcoholic. Although he is in denial about his disease, I have no doubts. He was sober until the holidays approached, and it has been pretty much non-stop drinking since. Unfortunatly I am not new to this, my older sister introduced me to the disease while we were in our early teens. I have in the past been lightly involved with Al-anon, and will be attending a meeting tomorrow.

I do my best to detach with love, and have been taking extremely small baby steps to live my life for myself. So small are the steps that most are just ideas at this point. Finding the courage to move forward is difficult and just plain scary. Prior to being involved with ABF, I did an excellent job of self isolation, most likely due to never learning to cope with whatever it is that I never coped with from my past. I am trying now not to dwell too much on the past and just move forward, as there is nothing I can do to change what already is.

My biggest obsticle other than social anxiety, is knowing what is good for me (ie: being logical) and having my emotions hold me back. On top of this wall in front of me, I only recently moved to the area I am in, and really have no contacts or support of any kind, yet... That is what I am working on to change.

Does your area have any Al-Anon support groups? You can go, meet some new people and spend time on yourself.

Congrats on your baby steps. Most of us started the same way.

You must've missed where she said she is going to Alanon tomorrow.

Hi 1KnotCloser! Welcome to SR!

I'm glad you decided to post and share a bit of your story and that you are going to an Al-Anon meeting soon. Face-to-face support can be soooo helpful.

Small steps are often the way to big changes!

Hugs and prayers, HG

Welcome! We're glad you found us.

What helped me was finding this board and reading all that I could and also going to AlAnon. In doing these things I found encouragement and the tools to do the things that I needed to make my life better. For a while I was just going through the motions but after a while my life started to come together. And it will for you also.

Thank you all for the kind words and support. My meeting will be this evening and I am looking forward to it even though it means getting out of my comfort zone for awhile. I know that it will be helpful just to be around others who have experienced some of the same things I have.

Welcome!
 

It sounds like you are in a place where you are ready to become happy. I think Alanon and SR is a great place to continue your recovery (which, in my opinion, you began at your first Alanon meeting).

Good luck!

Cyranoak