aaparis

Hi, My hubby has just come home from Rehab after 4 weeks, he is so moody..is this normal, also, do any of you have success stories. When he left rehab, they told him he should go to anger management as he has a problem with that too...even without drink!

least

I was also moody in early recovery - still am sometimes. It has to do with the fact that I had been been drowning my feelings in wine and now have to learn to deal with them sober. It's not easy but it is possible. I also go to a counselor, which helps me a lot just being able to vent. Would your husband benefit from counseling, at least for a while?

Anger management is also a good idea if he has a problem with his anger. I am sober 92 days today, but I was in rehab three times this year and relapsed continually until mid July. My problem was I still wanted to drink. I had to want to be sober more than wanting to drink.

Rehab is a great place to start a sober life, but rehab really is a sheltered environment. He'll need a recovery program to stay sober out in the 'real world'. AA is the best known recovery program but there are lots of others. Read the 'stickies' at the top of the Alcoholism forum for lots of info.

All the best to you! You can help your husband by supporting him in his quest to be sober.

Anna

Hi,

I didn't go to rehab, but I know that stopping drinking was only the first step.

The recovery work began in earnest, at that point, and still continues on a daily basis.

And, yes, there are tons of success stories here!

tennis71

Hi and welcome to SR.

I agree with what Least said about rehab. I don't think rehab was ever meant to cure someone. It creates a sheltered, structured and healthy environment where the alcoholic can get their head clear. The idea is to give us a fighting chance so that when we leave rehab, we seek out the structure and support that we need to stay sober. AA is great as it provides continuous follow up. There are other programs that do the same thing as well but the key to success in my opinion is the follow up and the promotion of abstinence.

Another good point is that your hubby has to want sobriety. If you want sobriety then you are willing to go through the 12 steps of AA or whatever other program he choses to remain sober. The point is that if you want sobriety, you have to work for it. Sobriety is not an event, it is a process.

I hope your hubby continues on his path to sobriety. It can be a bumpy road but it gets better with every sober day and anger management might be a key part of his recovery as well.

I look forward to reading more of your posts and I might suggest Al Anon meetings for yourself and the friends and family section of this site to get some more insight from others who are in the same situation that you are in.

:praying

justanothrdrunk

I went to rehab (3 times). After the most recent, been sober 15 months.

Not sure if that counts as "sucess" or not...

Rehab or not, early sobriety is TOUGH. And I still consider myself in early sobriety after 15 months.

In the past, I didn't know how to identify or deal with emotions. Plus being drunk all the time, I really didn't feel anything anyway.

Now that I'm sober, I have emotions again and learning how to both identify emotions and deal with them in a healthy way was (is) new territory for me.

aaparis

Thank you so much all of you for your replies. It is encouraging, but on the other hand I just feel I wonder if I want to live with this problem of not knowing where this is all going to go. I am mentally exhausted and feel it would be better if we split up and he lived alone to deal with this, I don't want to lose any more of my life being miserable. Now he is out of rehab, he just talks to me like ****, even the kids say he is worse.