Yellow stickies from the kitchen

I have a huge collection of yellow stickies – on my fridge, in my purse and car.  Today I’ve put them all well some of them here.

“Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it?”
Caroline Myss

“Unforgiveness is the poison you drink every day hoping that the other person will die.”
Debbie Ford

“And finally the day will come when the risk it takes to remain tight in the bud will be more painful than the risk it takes to blossom.”
Anais Nin

“Once you become aware of what stands in your way and become willing to release it, you signal the universe that you are ready to manifest the life you were meant to live.”
Chérie Carter-Scott

“The closer we get to uncovering ourselves, the more difficult it becomes to face the truth. Sooner or later we stop running, out of sheer exhaustion and desperation, and turn around to face our image. The pain that we go through during this revelation is negligible compared to the state of grace that we enter into when we have finally moved on.”
Dr. Christiane Northrup

“Always go with the choice that scares you the most,
because that’s the one that is going to require the most from you. ”
Caroline Myss

“When we harbor negative emotions toward others or toward ourselves,
or when we intentionally create pain for others,
we poison our own physical and spiritual systems.
By far the strongest poison to the human spirit
is the inability to forgive oneself or another person.
It disables a person’s emotional resources.
The challenge is to refine our capacity to love others as well as ourselves
and to develop the power of forgiveness. ”
Caroline Myss

The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

‘It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.’

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein quote

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Helen Keller

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I’ve divorced my Alcoholic husband and my life has really started

Hi everyone, it’s been a long time since I have posted about this. A year and a half ago I told my EXAH that I would be leaving him.  Our relationship over a 20 year period included periods of being in and out of rehab, dry drunk behavior and all the subsequent fallout. We were both very unhealthy people. There is no need to elaborate on his behavior, you have all been exposed to similar people and this post is a positive one.

When I left I was truly devastated, I have never felt so much physical gut wrenching throw yourself on the floor and assume the fetal position type of pain. I was totally broken and shattered. In the past I never really worked on MY issues, it was always easier to blame the A – just put a band aid on it and worse ignore and stuff the feelings down. I found out that I was an addict, addicted to him, the drama, the control that I thought I had. I now really felt pain for the first time. I was alone, with me! I didn’t like what I saw but I vowed to change. I posted and read a lot, talked and cried on the shoulder of my dearest friend – the sister of my heart,  and started to change my whole life.

The man I married does not exist anymore, there is an empty shell haunting the streets using his name but I don’t know him. He no longer haunts my mind or my heart. I had a funeral for Bob – invited a very few close friends, played “our” favorite music and our friends spoke about him – shared their feelings and said good bye.

I am not going to lie…the journey was tear-filled, stressful, frustrating, scary…as well as…knowing why I was doing what I was, continuing to work towards my goal of breaking the cycle of alcoholism and co-dependency in my family, knowing that “this too shall pass”, having a strong faith and relying on that daily for strength, having an amazing network of friends who supported me through the worst and the best…knowing that my journey was worth the pain, as I am now living the life I am meant to!

The universe opened up and welcomed me. I lost weight, I started snowshoeing, hiking and belly dancing, I go to yoga 2 times a week, practice daily meditation. My world has become such a beautiful place.

Every time I read posts on here about the pain, the grieving, the process, my journey comes back to me. There is light and hope after being involved with a addict. Work your program ‘cause you’re worth it.

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Life AFTER the Alchoholic really begins

I’ve learned that there’s a motive behind every action I take. I’m learning to examine my motives carefully to determine if the action
I’m planning to undertake will be beneficial and healthy for me. If it’s not, then I rethink my plan.

I’m no longer interested in partaking in activities that may be harmful to me.  Focusing on my alcoholic husband drove me nearly insane. My life improved drastically when I started to focus only on myself.

“He makes me feel crazy” is turning into “I am allowing myself to feel crazy.”
There is personal power in the latter statement.
There is blame in the former.

“You hurt me” is very different than “you made me feel hurt.”

“You hurt me” is owning your emotion.  A very justified emotion in oh so many instances. Taking away the “made me feel” is not removing the responsibility of the person taking the hurtful action, it is owning the reaction to it. If someone betrays me, harms me, does whatever that brings about an emotional reaction in me, I have every right to be angry, hurt, sad, whatever. But no one is making me feel those emotions.

Someone does something awful. I say “you make me feel so angry.” That is making them responsible for what they did and for what I am feeling. It is giving them some level of control over me.

Someone does something awful. I say “I an incredibly angry that you did that to me.”  That is making them responsible for what they did and me owning my reaction to it. That is taking control of what I say/do/feel.

I have hired a lawyer and filed for divorce.  I cried a lot more. I could see that my health (mentally, emotionally, spiritually, AND physically) required this. My sanity needed this. My serenity couldn’t co-exist with my “real husband”.

Yesterday I woke up to a very clear new understanding.  The man I loved was not the man I married and lived with every day. The man I loved was “my dream.”  The “dream husband” was loving, considerate, and always there for me.  The “real husband” was manipulative, abusive (emotionally and pyschologically), and very selfish. But I’d lived life everyday with the dream controlling my thoughts, my feelings, my reactions, even my memories. I rationalized and justified everything based on my dream.  I wasn’t loving my “real husband”, I was loving my “dream husband”.  Somehow I was sure the dream was or would be the reality.  This wasn’t fair to either of us. I wasn’t loving him. I was loving “potential” – some figment of my own imaginings.  A dream.  It was all a dream.

I feel the dull ache in the pit of my stomach, however I know the truth and it will deliver me, it will set me free. The ache in the pit
of my stomach is there because “my husband” (the dream) has died, but my heart is still fighting against believing it.  When someone really close to you dies physically, you are in shock.  You find yourself waiting for them to come walking through the door or call you up and let you know it was all just a silly mix-up.  But just like everyone else who’s lost someone they love to death, I know that won’t happen.  And thus the ache deepens.  Just like others, I need to pull myself together and plan the funeral and work through the process of grieving.

So this is the start of the end. I will no longer live my life based on dreams for others, or based on their potential.  I cannot love
someone if I’m only after their potential.  I need to love REAL people. Right where they are at today. Not where they could be (or where they should be, as my codependency says).

Courage is NOT the absence of fear; it is doing what is right and best for you IN SPITE of your fear.

I have to say in my own experience that I did EVERYTHING I felt I had to to make sure what I was doing was right for me. First I stepped back and let my AH be who he was.  For the first time in my life I just completely let go. What I saw was not pretty. He did zero to make anything better between us- and I expected/hoped he would see the light, come home, apologize, talk to me in a meaningful way- but no.  What I got was blaming, anger, immature behavior. . . it was appalling.  All I could think of was that when left to his own devices- when he didn’t have me putting my foot up his a** he really let it all hang out.

In the meantime I continued to work on myself. I had daily talks with my very wise friend (she was there to pick up the shattered pieces of what was me), I read deep into the night, I talked to friends – I even spoke to priest who is active in Al-Anon, and I continued to patiently wait to see what would come to me. I decided I could not work with AH- one person can only do so much in a marriage, and I had been carrying the load for years. I was tired and I wanted more.  It took me time- and I gave myself that.  I do not take divorce lightly- and I still do not want to be divorced- but I also know I cannot live with AH. He is not who I thought he was- and every day I need to remind myself of that fact.

I really started to grow and change when I accepted and acknowledged that I gave my power away.

Alcoholics drink because they don’t love themselves and they can’t handle the stresses of daily life.  They drink to drown out past hurts, responsibilities they can’t handle, and the pain of their own self-loathing.  They don’t drink to hurt others.  They just drink.  It was never personal.

I was able to get a glimpse of him.  All white from alcohol, thinner, weaker.. an ugly face! can you imagine? I who always thought of him as this Romeo.  I saw the ugliness of his personality.  Someone who cannot look you in the eye.  His jock attitude out of place.. like trying too hard to show he was “cool”.

So I try my best to separate the disease from the person. I found the disease of alcoholism ugly.  It changes good people into mere shadows of their former selves.  It consumes their every thought, their every action, and left unchecked, it consumes their lives.

Time has helped me realize that it’s important to always remember that there’s a human behind the disease.  Coming to that realization helped me let go of much of my anger and hurt.  When I was able to do that, I found peace.

Don’t let a failed relationship with a non-recovering alcoholic cause you to lose sight of all the wonderful things that you have going on in your life.  Be glad that you were finally able to see him for what and who he really is and that you aren’t investing anymore of your time with someone who cannot be a faithful, equal partner to you. You do not deserve to be stuck in some toxic relationship with a DRUNKEN AFLAC DUCK quacking it’s head off .  You deserve better!

Not drinking IS NOT recovery.

Not drinking and working on one’s self harder than one has worked on anything in their life IS recovery.

I do believe it takes a ‘bottom.’   Until one is totally BANKRUPT in EVERY aspect of their life, SPIRITUALLY, EMOTIONALLY,
PHYSICALLY, AND FINANCIALLY, the Alkie/Addict does not have that little ‘urge,’ ‘need,’ ‘desire,’ to try and save themselves.

I also believe that for me to get into recovery for my codie side I also had to be TOTALLY BANKRUPT SPIRITUALLY, and EMOTIONALLY along with MORE HEALTH PROBLEMS and FINANCIAL DISTRESS.  That once again got me off my butt, to take a good look at what I was DOING TO ME.

He has the right to conduct his life however he sees fit….AS DO YOU.  you have the opportunity now to GET ON with your life….free from the albatross of addiction, the elephant is OUT of the living room.  This last “exchange” even thru a third party can be the last time you have to be entangled in the past….OR you can continue to have expectations on someone who never WAS able to live up to them, and continue to be hurt and disappointed.

This is your shot now. your chance. your choice.

It may be one of the most referenced passages in recovery literature.  It’s from Page 449 of Alcoholics Anonymous or The Big Book as it is widely known:

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today.  When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation — some fact of my life — unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.

Nothing, absolutely nothing happens in God’s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life’s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.

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