I am here at an AL-ANON meeting for the first time ever after I attended a Nar-Anon meeting last night. Three months ago I started a relationship with a person who is a meth addict in recovery. Being a profoundly spiritual individual all of my life, I have been graced by having a life surrounded by love, compassion, and stability in a home for 22 years and never had problems of addiction around me. My recovery friend had a meth relapsed last week and I just found myself in fear and loss, terrified of a meth overdose and the death… Read more »

I’m new here and dont even fully know how this works. My fiance and the father of my children is an alcoholic I guess you could say. He drinks pretty much all day. I know he struggles with it because we have talked about it and says he wants to “slow down.” Sometimes he blames me for it sometimes he blames the stress of whatever difficulty we are going through at the time. I’m trying to maintain the household and cover the slack where he lacks due to his drinking but I’m over worked and stressed out myself when he… Read more »

This is my first time sharing. As I learn more about Al-Anon, the more curious I am. I have a mother who is an alcoholic, though I don’t think she would ever use those words. She has a history of severe addiction to prescription medication to the point where she loses touch with reality. Nowadays, I feel like she has mastered the “art” of being able to consume copious amounts of alcohol alongside with medication from time to time without it setting off alarm bells that there is a major problem like there was before. I am an adult who… Read more »

My husband has been in rehab for one week for a three to four year cocaine addiction. I have three children. Already he’s asked me to decide if I want to stay or not with him. He wants my forgiveness and he wants it now. I am so lost. I am so tired.

I am married to an alcoholic. He just got out of the hospital and it’s been three whole days of no drinking. I am no longer hoping or planning or expecting it to stay this way. Instead of pleading, cajoling, asking, demanding, wishing that the drinking will stop, I am concentrating on my happiness. We are happy together at the moment because he isn’t drinking. When that changes and the intolerable behaviors associated with drinking resurface I will stay elsewhere. I have made plans to stay 1 or 2 or 10 or 100 or 1,000,000 days someplace else, how long… Read more »

I am an adult child of alcoholics. 9 years ago I found Al-Anon & 3 years ago I got a sponsor & really started working the programme at the grand age of 52! 2 years ago I estranged my alcoholic mother. It is no coincidence that I am now living a life beyond my wildest dreams. I re married retrained and bought a cottage in the country and have dachshunds. I now know I am powerless over anyone else’s behaviour & drinking. I also know I am entitled to a happy life. Stop focusing on the alcoholic & focus on… Read more »

I am a child of an alcoholic, which ended up causing chronic sleep issues. I come from a long line of addicts, so I went through all the sleep meds, weed, and finally alcohol to sleep. So I ended up in treatment because no drug is enough for me to sleep (alcohol took me down), treatment is where I met my partner. I am in recovery, but my partner is not. I went through the AA steps and they did not prevent the emotional disaster of what happened to me when my partner relapsed. So I am trying a new… Read more »

This will be my first time sharing. I’ve been attending Al-Anon meetings for the past 2 months. Every time my partner drinks I desperately search for meetings and when I don’t find any on time, I snap and text and say things that I shouldn’t or should. I don’t even know anymore. I failed to allow my character defects pour through. I’m hurting so so much that I can’t control my reactions every time he drinks. He can’t keep jobs etc.. he drinks all hours of the day till he blacks out, he will stop for days give me hope,… Read more »

I am the adult child of alcoholics. Given my family string of alcoholics it’s a miracle I honestly didn’t end up with drinking issues myself but my distain for my upbringing surrounded by alcohol and violence has brought me to a place where I don’t think I want to live with drinkers anymore. My husband of many years has repeated patterns of alcohol abuse and has always made light of his drinking. It’s my issue from my past not him. Now it’s alcohol and cannabis. My 19 year old is also moving into regular alcohol/ cannabis use and my heart… Read more »

I feel myself holding on to a rope that’s slipping through my hands ripping the skin of my hands as they burn and my blood is slippery making my grip weak. Something very heavy is tied to the other end of it and I am fighting to keep my hold regardless of the blood and pain. I feel myself tired I’m alone isolated unwanted in this struggle and I’m only growing weak. I cried “oh GOD please help me I’m loosing my grip please give the the strength in my shoulders, arms and hands. Please heal my bleeding hands so… Read more »

I am new here. I feel totally hopeless and I am trying to gather the strength to stop thinking that having this person in my life is in my best interest. He lashed out at me today. He was drinking before 12 noon, and an hour or so later (and a few ipa in) he lashed out making all kinds of insults to me, would go from we will talk later to don’t text me. He’s day drinking again. I had to watch him go from totally sober to plastered within 3 hours. Not only with alcohol but with weed.… Read more »

I grew up living in a world where alcohol was normal, or so I thought. So many in my family have this disease gripping them fiercely, tearing them away from loved ones. A few of us learned the hard lesson early on from them that this was a destructive road to be on. My husband began his walk on this road a couple of years into our marriage, not knowing how bad it could get. I knew. I knew how powerless I would be from watching it kill one loved one after another. I can still hear my mom saying… Read more »

I am no match for the disease of alcoholism nor do I have the strength necessary to fight it. Anymore. I was baffled at the severity of the lashing I got today after returning home from work. Feeling unsafe, I used dishonesty to run to my escape. On the drive to a nearby hotel, I became overwhelmed. The tears did not stop flowing. These were tears of frustration, anger, and sadness. They were tears of hunger, fatigue, and pain. After fleeing, it became painfully clear to me that it was easier to surrender completely. I just gave up. I’ve always… Read more »

I have Od’d and survived for the 3rd time! I work the steps and then I leave them. They work. Why do I allow my life to become so unmanageable? Why do I allow my addict daughter to control me when I THINK I am trying to control her? Please God…I am powerless. I give it all over to you.

I am new here. First time. I give up. I am a type A, control freak, co-dependent, always wanting to fix others. My husband is an alcoholic. I can’t fix him. I need to fix myself. i give everything over to God. What I allow is what will continue. I’m setting boundaries.

I read the below post and realize my story is echoed in almost verbatim. I am a nurse and I took care of an alcoholic man when I first finished nursing school, and I thought to myself, that it must be awful to not have anyone come visit you in the hospital. He had wound up on my floor because of orthopedic surgery but during his stay he did not wait for someone to come help him up and went up and over the side-rails and broke his arm, winding up in another surgery. He was always considered a fall… Read more »

Once when I was a young doctor, working on a liver unit, there was an alcoholic patient who had been circling the drain for a long time. On his final day, as he slowly slipped away, yellow and bloated and bleeding out of every hole in his body, I explained to his mother that there was nothing more we could do for him she seemed unmoved and emotionless. Perhaps it was shock, but something told me otherwise, that it was as if she didn’t care, that she had nothing to say or nothing to give. I was aghast, this was… Read more »

I have had this app on my phone for a while and been too afraid to navigate it. Using the app or even attending a meeting would mean that I had to face reality right? I realized this weekend that I have to face reality. No matter what I do, or how much I try to support my boyfriend, I cannot control his addiction. I cannot prevent him from relapsing. As I waited Friday, with his children who were visiting for the weekend, for him to pick up dinner, the anxiety and fear I live with every day became reality.… Read more »

Step 1 – I am powerless so I am taking back my freedom.

This step is the reason I came to Al-Anon.