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Echoes of Recovery: Help for Loved Ones of Alcoholics
“I quit drinking for you, Sheri! What more do you want from me?” I was hurting so badly from the failure and shame and debilitating depression of alcoholism. I was exerting every morsel of strength that I had to battle the cravings and brain hijacking of addiction to alcohol. I was in the fight of my life. Me. Recovery was all about me. If I was to overcome this demon, I needed my wife’s support, and I wasn’t capable of even contemplating her needs.
I had apologized for my drunken behavior so many times. On the mornings after I over drank, became irrationally angry and said despicable things, I had so often apologized and shown sincere remorse. When I made a commitment to sobriety, I had apologized again. I said I was sorry, and do you know what follows sorrow? Forgiveness. What more could Sheri have possibly needed?
Recovery. She needed recovery from my alcoholism if she ever hoped to get her life back on a healthy track. In our case, we kept the marriage together. But that’s beside the point, really. No matter what Sheri’s ongoing relationship with alcohol and her alcoholic looked like — sobriety, continued drinking, staying in the marriage or divorce — my wife needed to recover from the disease that had crushed her life.
