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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to hide my mini bottles of wine from dh?

32 replies

issysmilkbottle · 30/12/2009 00:42

dh likes a couple of beers most nights and in the past has drunk anything else in the house once i've gone to bed.

I bought him a box of ten guiness to have at xmas and some mini wine for me... He drank the guiness xmas eve/day and has bought himself various beers/been to pub each day since.

As i was trying to settle dd who is 5 weeks he came in asking where i'd hiden my wine, i told him he couldn't have it and got in a strop... This unsettled dd and i tried for another hour and half to settle her during which time dh fell asleep downstairs... I then woke him and asked him to help me settle her as he'd unsettled her earlier... He got angry but went up and tried, she wouldn't stop cryimg so i went up and took her. He then raised his voice and slammed the door. I called him an alcoholic.... He said i was a deeply unpleasant person...

Was ibu? Think this might end in divorce....

OP posts:
ChippingIn · 31/12/2009 03:19

Issysmilkbottle I'm sorry to hear you are going through this, especially with a 5 week old baby (and all the hormones kicking about!!). It's shit.

I only have a little experience with this. I lived with a lovely guy who had been in rehab twice (before we met), who was insistant he was never an alcoholic () and equally insistant he could be a social drinker and it wasn't a problem, and, to be fair, it wasn't for a while - then it got worse & worse & worse - he was as you describe your DH.

I tried as I really did care about him, but in the end I left him. It was getting so that I just didn't want to go home if he was there and I was working as much as I could, changing my work pattern so that I was working when he was off and vice versa. I'd not long come out of a long term relationship and couldn't face life with an alcoholic in denial, who was getting more and more angry by the day. He threw a few things around the flat and a phone at me, at that point I thought, it's only a matter of time before he hits me.... and I was out of there. However, we were only together a year and we didn't have any children.

Be careful, get as much support as you can and do what you have to for you and the little one - he's a grown man and if he has to, he will look after himself.

secretsquirrel1 · 31/12/2009 06:27

Issy-pleased to hear that you had a better day yesterday.

I don't mean to burst your bubble about the fact that 'he asked for your wine but didn't drink it'....you do need to wise up about how the alcoholic behaviour kicks in - of course he 'didn't drink that wine' but then he went to the pub 'for a couple of pints' as though that somehow makes it all ok.

You will never ever outwit an active alcoholic. He will have alcohol hiding all over the place; he will lock himself in the loo for hours on end, he will nurse whatever he is drinking-not letting it our of his sight for one second. And if he needs to go anywhere, that drink will be knocked back in one.

My EH went from beer to wine to vodka with coke....but that became so dilute with vodka that it was a bit pointless - so then he mixed the vodka with milk to make everyone think that he was drinking 'just milk'....oh the behaviour got worse but I have said enough about all that for now.

I am out of that madness now and you are in the thick of it. I was exactly where you are now 6 years ago with a newborn DD - it was her birth that helped to speed up EH's descent down the pit. He really couldn't handle the responsibility of being a new parent.

An awful lot of the mad behaviour that manifest itself then can now be explained - but I also recognise my part in the mad behaviour as well; that was very very hard to accept because after all, I was not the one with the problem!! But I was suckered into appeasing him, bailing him out time and time again-either by buying alcohol so I could control how much he was drinking (how stupid was that?), giving him money 'cos he never seemed to have any, and then by taking on his responsibilities, and accepting more and more intolerable behaviour. He became obsessed with where his next drink was coming from and I became obsessed with his behaviour .

I had absolutely no idea - because by then I was a recluse, not going out or seeing my friends because it was pride and self preservation from letting on to them how shit our lives were.

By the end, he drank at home - 24/7 when he lost his job and from then on I had 3 years of sheer hell. But I cannot praise Al Anon enough - it helped me to get out of that pit, and to realise that there was absolutely nothing I could do about getting him out too - that was His responsibility, not mine. I learnt to detach from the alcoholic behaviour, not from the person underneath it. And I learned to start looking after both myself a DD.

MrsSawdust · 31/12/2009 11:21

dittany- I bought it for him on this occasion, yes. I don't normally. Not sure why I did it really. I've been going to alanon and learning that I can't control his drinking, so at the moment I am simply not engaging in any conversation about alcohol with him at all. To refuse to buy it would have been controlling, futile and pointless because it would have sparked a debate (which I am avoiding) and he would have gone and bought it himself anyway. I don't know if this was the right thing to do. I hated buying it but I am making a massive effort not to argue with him about it either.

He doesn't usually ask me to get it tbh, but I happened to be going to the supermarket where he normally buys it.

I'm sure I was wrong to buy it but I didn't know how else to avoid the debate.

dittany · 31/12/2009 13:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

secretsquirrel1 · 31/12/2009 14:57

Hear Hear, Dittany. Adults are able to make the choice to do something about it but DC's don't. That is why getting support for yourself is vital.

But you need to also remember that when DC's are very young, they have unconditional love for their alcoholic parent-yes my EH would be out of his box but DD couldn't understand why I was ranting & raving at him when he was like that.

The pair of them used to gang up on 'silly mummy who was no fun anymore' - and my reactions would make it worse because I was wanting dialoge with someone in a blackout and from a child that I believed should know better. I couldn't get the desired response from the alcoholic so I ended up screaming and shouting at poor DD......

Until I got myself out of the pit with the help of AlAnon

dittany · 31/12/2009 16:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

secretsquirrel1 · 05/01/2010 11:30

How are things now, Issy?

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