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.
My husband has been sober for a little over 40 days, but we're still pretty new to all of this. His sobriety has been fairly easy so far--he can't drive, we haven't been in any situation where he'd be expected to drink, etc.
What I'm struggling with right now is that I'm going out of town this weekend to visit a friend. I want to be able to enjoy myself and have a good time rather than obsess the whole time that he's drinking. I want to be able to trust him, but as the weekend approaches, I'm getting a little panicky.
I know that I can't control whether he drinks or not. But I still can't stand the thought of leaving and not knowing either. How can I detach??
I think I've been where you are. The anxiety about what could possibly happen in the future was ruining my day and my relationship. This is what worked for me.
I realized fear was at the base of this. I was afraid that what had happened in the past would happen again. I even thought I had a valid reason to believe that and I may have. But I realized I could have a million fears about the future, any one of them could come true. I had a choice to live in reality today or in fear of tomorrow.
For me meditation works, it is very similar to prayer, if not the same thing. Get quiet and relaxed in a room.
1st during meditation I checked my reality. What was I grateful for. I realized I was very grateful for several positive things my AH had done very recently. I gave thanks to my HP for that.
I then checked my reality by realizing that I was anxious about the future. I thought of all my fears connected to this and breathed them out. I kept breathing until I felt like I had addressed each possible fear.
Then I breathed in Peace and Contentment. Kept breathing in deeply, feeling as though the peace was washing through your body with each breath. The same for contentment.
Then I prayed to live for today and to live God's will, not mine, to let tomorrow go, for that is not known to me.
Rinse and repeat as needed before and during your weekend.
This is what works for me, it may be totally foreign or hokey to you, and if so, I'm sure others will have different things that work for them.
-- Edited by Chelle3 on Thursday 31st of March 2011 01:32:28 PM
Thanks so much for your reply. I really appreciate it. I totally get what you're saying. I haven't had much experience meditating, mostly because I don't even know how to begin. I feel like it's hard for me to even just breathe sometimes, let alone breathe slowly.
You're right, though. It is all based on fear. I tell my husband this when he accuses me of being negative or not supportive. My reactions to things are all out of feeling terrified of what might happen.
I understand the living for today thing and not worrying about tomorrow, but what do I do when it is tomorrow? I guess what I mean is, what do I do if I'm worrying about something taking place right that instant? How do I detach then?
I've been there. The day I hit rock bottom and decided I had to throw myself into recovery and not look back, I was sitting in the parking lot of an Alanon meeting in my car. I was crying because I knew my AH was going to be home alone. He was struggling through a relapse and I felt physically sick with fear at the thought of leaving the house for ONE HOUR to go to a meeting for myself. I called my sponsor crying and told her that I was at the meeting but that I did not think I could go in. I told her I was going home. She gently encouraged me to come in just for a minute or two to talk - but as fate had it, the meeting (which was an open AA speaker meeting, not an Alanon meeting) was getting underway. I took a seat, intending to just stay for a minute because I felt like I needed to go home. I ended up getting wrapped up in the speaker and completely forgot about my problems for an hour. It was the best hour I ever had. For that time, i was fully engaged in someone else's story.
At the end of the meeting I felt so much better - so much lighter. My sponsor asked me what going home before the meeting would've accomplished. I would've been following my AH around all night, probably even to the bathroom, to make sure he didn't drink. The thing is, following him around had never kept him sober. He was getting drunk every day anyway - regardless of my best efforts to be the biggest pain in the ass he ever met. It just flat out did not matter if I was at home with him or not. If he wanted to drink he was going to drink. If he wanted to stay sober, he was going to stay sober. My presence (or absence) was not the deciding factor in that.
The point to be taken for me - after HP intervened on my behalf to do for me what I could not do for myself - is that in my early recovery, I needed to just keep doing the next right thing. At the time, that meant going to meetings and working my program. That meant getting off my AH's back and getting out of the way so that his HP could get at him. And mostly, that meant truly accepting that I am powerless. The anxiety and feeling like I needed to go home was an indication that I really and truly believed that by going home, I could prevent my AH from drinking. It all begins with Step 1.
-- Edited by White Rabbit on Thursday 31st of March 2011 02:14:52 PM
Wow, thanks so much White Rabbit. That really helped. Everytime I hear "get out of the way and let his HP help him" it nearly knocks me over. I somehow always forget that.
I also liked the other half of the spin on if he wants to drink, he'll drink. I've never thought of it from "if he wants to stay sober, he'll stay sober." I like that a lot. Thinking about it from that point of view makes it that much clearer that my presence or absence has nothing to do with it.
So IF _______________ happens tomorrow then I will _______________.
For example, today I'm glad that husband isn't drinking. If he drinks tomorrow I will assess the situation. Am I being hurt? Can I live with this and detach? IF I can't detach then what tools can I use to detach better (alanon meetings, journaling, do things for yourself, yoga, be with my friends).
If the drinking causes something that I will not allow, for example verbal abuse, what will I do? Assess the situation. What's really the problem? Am I playing a part in it? Can the problem be fixed by fixing myself? IF not, will the AH fix his side, if not what will I do? For me, abuse that is not resolvable is a no go, that is my boundary I will leave.
Another boundary I have is, is it negatively affecting my kids, if it is I will consider leaving.
You have to make your own boundaries for your own possible situations, but for me, knowing my plan creates serenity.
I learned meditation from www.yogaglow.com. You can do a trial for a couple weeks I think. They have meditations for resentment, pain etc that are very useful.
I've grown partial to CanadianGuy's "he'll either drink or he won't, what will you do???" phrase. It becomes a mantra of sorts when I'm worried about my AH and if he's drinking or not - what will I do is easy to answer, if he's drinking he can't be here, I won't be answering texts/emails, and I won't be dragged into his game; period.
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I am strong in the broken places. ~ Unknown
All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another! ~ Anatole France
Hmm... for me, what worked was referring back to the Three C's.... In reality, you can't "cause his drunkeness" any more than you can "cause his sobriety", so your fears are kind of under the fallacy that you somehow control whether he drinks or not.... I would say that "if he chooses to drink, the fact that you are present or not is pretty much a non-factor"..... if that is not true, then the Three C's would be false (which they are not).
Enjoy your weekend, and hand that fear over to where it belongs - your HP....
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?"
The Serentiy Prayer always helps me during the worst moments to let go of the worry and focus on my experience caring for myself. Lotso wishes for you to have a fabulous visit with your friends!