Family member - getting better the secular way....
 

I have mixed feelings about the word 'Recovery' - perhaps because of it's adoption to mean so many things I don't relate to, but at the same time I have been getting better, I have been recovering from the stress, and feelings of having someone I love so much addicted to alcohol.

As I seem to have mackled together a variety of support it looks like I have a lot in common with many folk in here. I've used all sorts of things - counselling, SR, reading, friendships, SMART and recently Life Coaching which seems to have just at the right time to sling shoot me into my own future.

I picked out those things that respected my perspective, respected that we are a couple and that we have every right to choose to deal with any problem we want to together. What mattered to me was to have those efforts encouraged and supported.

There's so much on offer out there to help - it doesn't have to be addiction related. One of the things I hold right up there for helpfulness was a BBC website on relationships and conflict. Hell, where there's relationships and a ton of alcohol there's also stresses and to get a head start on relationships, to solidify wants and aims, to get ideas how to achieve those was priceless as a means of help.

I haven't found every source (yet! :) ) but I think for nearly everything a family member faces, from confusion, fear, and loss to hope, love and the future there's something out there to offer information and help. I think we are not alone not JUST because other's have gone through the same but also because many people go through different things and yet experience so much that is the same.

After the drinking stopped I realised there was still a long way to go but it feels as though I'm getting there, and we're getting there.

Thanks for this Eq. I still sometimes doubt that this can be done without a thundering God in my life, but I think it can. Those of us who are a sucess can show by example.

"bump"