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Liz Frazer's memoir about life with an abusive alcoholic
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FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 20:30
Did anyone read this excoriating account about living with an alcoholic?
Writer Liz Fraser writes about her years caring for her alcoholic physically and emotionally abusive partner. Sadly she seems to justify and endure his abuse as something he can't help and allows herself to be used as a battering ram.
Finally he attends AA meetings and dries out and then she begins to suffer with her mental health and is left a nervous wreck.
Obviously he is completely unsupportive and since publishing her book she announces on Twitter that he has just left her.
I just think that if she had shared her situation on Mumsnet it would have been her leaving him!
I have only read the (long) extract as the book is not out yet.
A lesson in this for all of us.
Liz Fraser: my life with an alcoholic partner | Times2 | The Times
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liz-fraser-my-life-with-an-alcoholic-partner-mdb3l0j6f
FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 20:41
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FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 20:43
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Lana07 · 14/09/2021 20:56
She CHOSE to be a victim.
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 20:58
and a Rescure
FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 21:00
The thing was that once the dynamics of the relationship changed and she was no longer the `rescuer' he upped and left.
This is why going to al anon is so helpful.
Throwntothewolves · 14/09/2021 21:21
I can really relate to this. None of it was a 'choice' for her, more a reaction to a horrific situation she couldn't control or easily escape. It's easy to view from outside and make judgement, but unless you have lived experience of it you cannot possibly understand. This happens all the time to so many people, I bet we all know someone suffering the effects of alcoholism in some way
Throwntothewolves · 14/09/2021 21:25
Mumsnet is informative, helpful and supportive, and can give clarity to those suffering such situations. But there are always those posters who will judge or belittle, destroying any glimmer of hope or self confidence a poster desperately seeking help may have.
TicTac80 · 14/09/2021 21:36
Reading what she wrote, it reminded me so much of the situ I had with XH (he’s an alcoholic). I felt sick when I read it, as the memories came flooding back. I hope she finds peace
FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 21:45
I'm going to buy the book but I know I am going to be shouting at it, just leave the bastard!
Having been stuck in an abusive relationship with an abusive alcoholic myself it is advice I wish I had taken myself.
Just don't waste any of your life because they will never change.
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:05
@FreshFreesias
This is why going to al anon is so helpful.
So what he's left.
His loss.
A woman with high self-esteem will NEVER choose and allow herself to be a victim
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:06
Especially an educated, intelligent woman with high emotional intelligence.
FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 22:07
He’s probably run off with someone in AA.
Hope she doesn’t take him back if he goes back on the booze and his life falls apart again.
Darkchocolateandcoffee · 14/09/2021 22:09
I follow her on Insta. I don't understand why she threw in her stable marriage to a nice guy and father to her teenage kids for an alcoholic barista in her local cafe.
It slightly seems to me she is asking for trouble.
cabinfever102 · 14/09/2021 22:11
Maybe she shouldn't have monetised someone else's pain and life story for her own gain. Especially someone she professes to love and who was vulnerable. And the fact that AA isn't mean to be represented at level of press. She sounds like a bit of a dick to be honest. Self obsessed snd frankly just as bad in terms of her codependency.
whatwoulddexterdo · 14/09/2021 22:13
Why have you posted all of this?
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:15
I was a victim of a horrible alcoholic (emotional abuse) as a child and my promise to myself when I was 12 was: 'My lovely loving husband will be alcohol or any substance abuse indifferent.'
At 21 I had a clear vision of him and decided: he will be smart. clever, calm, supportive, patient and business-minded. He will love to travel with me, we'll be great compatible lovers with the same level of sex drive. He will be well educated, will work and earn and I will be and do the same. He will be ambitious and successful, fit and sporty.
I knew exactly who I wanted as my husband and I met him in 2004.
She didn't think she deserved more and never had her boundaries set if she allowed herself to carry on being a victim with him for so many years.
FreshFreesias · 14/09/2021 22:15
An alcoholic barista doesn’t sound much of a catch. She probably had to keep him too.
She got into trouble on here when she went on the Jeremy Vine show to justify men in women’s changing rooms.
That went well as you can imagine.
cabinfever102 · 14/09/2021 22:15
@Darkchocolateandcoffee
It slightly seems to me she is asking for trouble.
Alcoholism is only one kind of addiction
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:15
& generous
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:18
It could easily be that there was not much sexual desire with her stable husband but they had much more mutual passion with this alcoholic barista
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:18
and great sex when it happened kept them togeter
PermanentTemporary · 14/09/2021 22:20
Oh Lana. Be a bit kinder to yourself.
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:24
@PermanentTemporary
I am kind to myself and everyone.
I am happy.
At the same time I am strong would never ever let anyone bring a single moment of abuse into my life because I and we all deserve to be happy all our life from the moment we were born.
Snookie00 · 14/09/2021 22:24
Wow. The judgemental posters are out tonight. That bullshit about intelligent educated women with high self esteem never choosing to be a victim. Living with an alcoholic is a gradual process. They’re never like that on day one. It slowly but surely saps your good judgement and rational thinking. It’s the height of arrogance to say she chose to be a victim.
And judging her for writing about it. It’s her story and her life. Why the hell shouldn’t she? Writing about someone else’s pain? She lived it and is perfectly entitled to write about it. Perhaps if he hadn’t been a total asshole then she wouldn’t have had anything to write about.
Lana07 · 14/09/2021 22:27
I HAVE A WRITE to MY opinion!
Who hasn't experienced it, will never ever understand it 100%!
I am STRONGLY AGAINST CHOOSING to be a victim.
Those who like it masochist type of life can carry on, their choice.
I am talking about MY choice and MY life!
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