The material presented
here is not Al-Anon Conference Approved Literature. It is a method
to exchange
information, ideas, feelings, problems and solutions on a personal
level.
I believe that I have destroyed my life as I know it. My boyfriend is a wonderful man. We have been living together for 2 years now. I know that I cannot control the alcoholic but still feel very responsible for the events of yesterday. I travel frequently for work so I he tends to drink when I am traveling. This time I get to be home for 2 months. I was so excited about it. I have been home for about a month and there has been no drinking until yesterday. Thanksgiving went great. Yesterday started out great. I over-reacted to something that was said. This led to an entire day of arguing and ended up with him drinking last night. I left the house and went to stay in a hotel. I am sitting in this hotel room wondering how everything spiraled out of control. I don't know how to reverse the things that were said or done. I feel that I have "slammed" the door on returning to our life together. He says that he doesn't want to see me and yet I am yearning to go home. I feel very alone right now. I don't want to call any of my friends or family. In the past he has always been very upset when I have called someone in the past to talk. Do I go home where I truly want to be or do I stay in this hotel? Do I continue being silent or do I call someone to talk? How can life be so wonderful one minute and turn to crap the next?
So....enough of my rambling....thanks for allowing me to get some of my confusion written down in this forum.
What I would really suggest is to go to meetings. There is a chat room here. Can you get into it. Pour yourself into al anon. Obviously something will work out about your home since I presume you contribute to the bottom line there.
The more you can learn about alcoholism the better you will be. The more you can look at skills that will help you the more clarity you will get.
Alcoholics depend on arguments as an excuse to drink. They don't need one of course because they will drink anyway. All of us, certainly me, have had times when we over reacted, said things we should not and had arguments we regret. That is part and parcel of dealing with alcoholism. I don't think you deserve the electric chair!
I hope you will give yourself some time out to look at what skills you can build for yourself. Nothing but nothing you do can stop or make your partner drink.
Welcome, Sheila, you are in the right place. It sounds as if you are in a lot of pain and turmoil right now. Please know that everyone on these boards has been in a similar condition of pain, and have found that with support life absolutely can get better again, and not only back to "normal" but better than it ever has been. I hope you can also look up your local Al-Anon meetings and get to one as soon as you can. Face-to-face support is also wonderful and invaluable. There are meetings every day in many places. Try several of them to find the one that fits you best.
I also know that feeling of guilt and remorse after I've erupted and lost my cool. It's essential for me to acknowledge my part in it. But it's also true that argument require two people to show up for the fight. Just because I share in the situation doesn't mean I'm the whole cause of the situation. If we had that much control -- to make rational people blow up even though they don't want to -- how much power we'd have! Enough power to stop alcoholics drinking, even. But everyone has power over themselves only.
I'm guessing that you're right in thinking that things have gotten way out of control. Yur boyfriend has also been not drinking (or if he's like my ex, hiding his drinking) for a month, and if he's like the usual alcoholic, the pressure has been getting stronger and stronger and the craving worse and worse. I finally figured out that arguing had a bonus side-effect for my ex -- he got to be "rightfully" upset at my behavior, which means he was "entitled" to drink. So he'd start drinking, which would make him more volatile, and then when I reacted to that (not a good Al-Anon response, but I hadn't found Al-Anon yet), we'd get into a fight, and then he felt even more entitled to drink. Meanwhile I was castigating myself for being so argumentative. But the elephant in the room was the drinking. My goal was to get along; his goal was to drink without anyone interfering.
I declared I was leaving a number of times. I didn't have a lot of awareness and I didn't really know how to take care of my emotions (I wish I'd found Al-Anon a lot sooner). So the plans to leave or to kick him out were just more turmoil. When I finally did ask him to leave, it was after a lot of consideration, with planning ahead. I asked him calmly, and he left calmly. That was the way I could stick to it.
I know what we all want, alcoholics and co-dependents, is not to have so much turmoil and pain in our lives. The alcoholics go to alcohol to escape -- but that just passes the pain on to someone else. The rest of us can escape by changing our lives. Al-Anon can be a big part of that. Please keep coming back, attend meetings, keep learning, and know that you are not alone. And that you are worthy and can get through this no matter what your alcoholic thinks or does.
Aloha Shiela and boy do I identify with where you are at. I can't remember if I stayed in a hotel but I've used the couch at work and my car and at a time or two my own apartment. I came to call the condition my between a rock and a hard place condition. It is common place for alcoholism...very. That he has his own thoughts about the situation and you have your own are actually how things are suppose to be however I learned that the saner the thoughts and action were was one of the purpose of my own program of recovery. The 2nd of our 12 steps says "Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could lead us to SANITY." I read your post and see my past and revisit the insanity of addiction that ruled our lives. Actually it was better that I be away from it (office couch, apartment or car) than in it even though it wasn't what I was compulsed for or comfortable with. Being out of the problem actually is and was better and the Al-Anon Family Group program teaches me to be out of the problem where ever I am at.
You are powerless over him, it, them, that, there everything and need to attain and maintain at least some self power although that is fleeting too. Where I learned it was inside the rooms of the Al-Anon Family Groups and with that fellowship and the literature and sponsorship and more. This disease can and will kill its victims and not all of its victims drink and use; some don't even touch the stuff. So maybe from the safety and quiet of your hotel room you can call the hotline number for Al-Anon (white pages of your telephone book) and get a live person and or the recording of where and when the meetings are at. Certainly there is little to no disturbance against contacting your Higher Power how ever you describe a Higher Power to be and asking for support. Your man doesn't have the ability to be the reason for your peace of mind and your serenity. If you are depending upon a sick person for your health you are also in need of change lessons. If he is using and or drinking he is altered, less than normal human, more than powerless; he cannot be the source of your serenity and you might need to accept that others can help you get it. That is what this forum can do for you.
Hope you keep coming back here, and also get to Al-Anon... you'll learn that he "drinks because he is an alcoholic", and not because of anything you did or didn't do/say/think.... THe three C's remind us that we cannot "cause" his drunkeness anymore than we can "cause" his sobriety.
I wish you well in your journey
Tom
__________________
"He is either gonna drink, or he won't.... what are YOU gonna do?"
"What you think of me is none of my business"
"If you knew the answer to what you are worrying about, would it REALLY change anything?"
Sheila, you are not responsible for the events of the day. Alcoholics drink because that is what alcoholics do. So, maybe because you said something he did not like; maybe because it was Wednesday; maybe because the dog sneezed on him. Who knows?
COme back here often, and attend AlAnon meetings close to your home. It all will be worth the effort when you begin to realize that NONE of this is your fault.
All good wishes,
Diva
__________________
"Speak your truth quietly and clearly..." Desiderata