Loving and trying to live with an active drinker is a hard, lonely life. One may soon lose friends and have no-one to talk to who understands your situation. We mostly try to cover it all up and isolate ourselves.
That's what I did. I felt so ashamed of all the things that were happening, and of my angry feelings too.
Where I found help that worked was at - AL-ANON FAMILY GROUP MEETINGS.
You have probably never heard of Al-Anon, but I bet you have heard of AA - Alcoholics Anonymous.
Al-Anon is for the RELATIVES and FRIENDS of Alcoholics, and uses the same effective program of recovery as AA does. It was set up for families of alcoholics over 60 years ago.
You don't hear of AL-Anon because we do not advertise. We send information out into the community and hope those that need us find us.
SO WHAT IS AL-ANON?
At a weekly Al-Anon family group meeting you will find NO PROFESSIONALS, no counsellors, no trained therapists, and no fees.
You WILL find people like you and me, people who have suffered from someone else's drinking and found help at Al-Anon meetings.
The people at an Al-Anon meeting will UNDERSTAND YOU because - we have been where you are now. We know what it's like.
We share our experiences and this is how we help each other - we learn from each other and read Al-Anon literature. Even the Al-Anon literature has been written by people living with alcoholics, not university graduates. People from around the world like you and me. Yes I still go to Al-Anon meetings. Because it teaches a lovely way to live, even after the alcoholic may have stopped drinking, as my wife has.
We are self supporting by our own VOLUNTARY donations - so if you are broke, you can still attend meetings.
Look at the latter HELP pages and find if there is an Al-Anon meeting near you. Al-Anon has meetings in most countries around the world.
Have a look. Take a definite step to get some help.
You will rarely be able to cope for long on your own.
Try it.
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