(Reprinted with permission of The Forum, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters., Inc., Virginia Beach, VA) From The Forum, August 2019 Truth was hard to come by in my family. Growing up with a disabled and moody dad with chronic pain and lots of health problems was not the easiest experience for a young kid. What made it worse was that we never talked about it or admitted that it was frustrating and upsetting to live with those challenges. As a family,…
(Reprinted with permission of The Forum, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters., Inc., Virginia Beach, VA) From The Forum, August 2019 I met the alcoholic in my life through online dating. Though I felt that I was okay with social drinking, I learned that there is no such thing as social drinking to an alcoholic. My partner was in A.A., but was a binge drinker. When he wasn’t drinking, he was kind, loving, and respectful—all the traits I wanted in a partner.…
(Reprinted with permission of The Forum, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters., Inc., Virginia Beach, VA) From The Forum, August 2019 The first Al-Anon meeting I attended was not for me—or so I thought. I was accompanying a friend who was looking for answers about her alcoholic loved one. I was immediately welcomed by the women and men there, and I noticed that they were all smiling and laughing. I felt comfortable before the meeting even started. As we all took turns…
Joy : Looking in the mirror. It is a great joy for me today to see all of you in such a cheerful mood at this event of the anniversary of “Muskan” Alanon Family Group in Patel Nagar. During the peak time of alcoholism in my life, I used to enjoy little things that required very little or even no money. In the evening after coming from the office I used to take my two children to play in the…
Choosing Happiness In Al-Anon I am into Al-Anon programme from many many years, my alcoholic was into A.A. some years back ,since then he is in & out from his sobriety. My alky has severe psoriasis a skin diseases which gives lot of itching & irritation. Doctors have told him that any toxins would aggravate the disease, but he is not able to overcome his craving for alcohol, where the relapses are for 8-15 days every 30-50 days. Those days…
My Story Not that I was an agnostic but it just did not occur to me that I could surrender and ask for help from a Higher Power. I thought it was my job to handle every thing and every one. I was almost a single parent. My in laws turned us away because of my husband’s drunken and angry outbursts. I did not let my parents know what was happening for fear of hurting them. There was unmanageability of…
SELF ESTEEM I am a member of the Al-Anon family group because my life has been affected by the excessive drinking of my loved one. Alcoholism has robbed me of many things but the worst thing that Alcoholism has done to me is that it robbed me of my self-esteem. As a child, I already had a low self-esteem, alcoholism only added to the low self-esteem. When I came to Al-Anon, I had to use all the aspects of the…
Love and Gratitude I am grateful for the Al-Anon fellowship which gave me comfort when I was miserable with an alcoholic partner. My life was full of chaos, nothing had gone as planned, my expectations, the very basic ones, were unmet and my husband’s drinking continued. This was nine years back from today. His drinking ruined not only him but damaged me also. I felt I had failed.The drinking went worse. Finally we ended up in a rehab where I…