Guilt & Gratitude
 

Over the last two weeks, family friends went through their own addiction crisis. This family is similarly situated to mine in terms of kids, profession, etc. I got a call from the addict who wanted to "chat" who unloaded his addiction, affair, financial issues, etc. when we met. After absorbing the magnitude of the crisis, I knew enough to know that he had to want to get sober for himself, wouldn't be able to address the other crisis' before he tried to fix himself, and that the road was going to get worse before he got better.

After about three days of fellowship, the situation with his wife and kids was getting out of hand. Changing of locks, mutual threats of one form or another, abandonment/return, and of course the endless state of lies. The hardest part was realizing that I was enabling him, serving as a sounding board of the other non-addiction issues. Maybe his last call for help, but I agreed to talk about anything he wanted, providing it was either about detox or rehab. I felt horrible putting up the wall, but I also believe it was the right thing. He and his wife checked him into detox last week with thirty day in patient rehab beginning this week.

Given what I have been exposed to within this family, I'm certain our relationship will never be the same. That said, I have an enormous sense of gratitude that he has gotten help. I also looked at my family and got on my knees to thank god that they are there by my side.

I'm working on the guilt...it stings a bit

It was fantastic he had you to talk to and felt comfortable opening up DrunkTx!! :)

Don't ever feel guilty about that. What you did was help save a life.