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Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Help, I've done it

38 replies

Itstheend · 30/12/2021 17:41

I posted about this before and also under the name Badrowtonight.

Long relationship with DP and his drinking has always caused problems. I could give so many examples. I've stuck it out because the sober and not-being-a-selfish twat side of him is just right for me. But that man is only here sometimes.

I've wavered over ending it for years. Today was the last straw. He went out for milk at 12.30 and returned at 5 after another little pub crawl.
I asked him this week that if he's going out drinking, fine, but tell me so I don't waste yet another day of my life hoping he'll come home and we could do something together.
He said he didn't rember saying that (he seemed to be finding the whole thing amusing when he got home). I said it was a shitty way to treat me even if he didn't remember and he quietly agreed.

Then I did it. I told him we were over and he needs to move out. He just shrugged and went upstairs.

I'm numb. This isn't what I really want, but I can't have the relationship I want with him either, I know that. I think he loves me. He loves drink more. I'm so sad that it has come to this. I have tried talking to him so many times. It never works. My heart is breaking that he has knowingly thrown away something that should have been so good.

I'm scared that it's really happening. I don't want this to end, but I can't continue any more. I'm lonely now but I'll be lonelier, I don't make real friends, I've only really got 1 and she isn't local. I'm 55. When we retire we would have just scraped by together OK and, but on my own I'm facing poverty when I stop working . Fucking hell. What am I doing? Why can't he accept he has a problem and do something about it.

Sorry this is a long waffle on. I don't know what I'm asking here. This is awful.

OP posts:
Yummypumpkin · 30/12/2021 20:35

@Dery this too is lovely.

momtoboys · 30/12/2021 20:45

Atilla got to my thought first. Try Al-anon whether you stay or go. It can be a tremendous help. Another posted also said nothing is lonelier that being with the wrong person. She is so right. 55 is young - don't get stuck there unhappy for the rest of your life.

SunsetSmartmeter · 30/12/2021 20:49

Hi OP, I wanted to share my experience with you in the hope that it gives you some reassurance and optimism.

I was in a relationship with an alcoholic. Thankfully only for two years and I was not tied to her financially or through shared children. I was able to walk away with no strings to cut, though that didn't ameliorate the distress of it. The walking on eggshells, the frustration which turns to resentment at repeatedly ruined plans - it took a toll and I became a shadow of my former self. But I loved her, and it was hard to walk away when she was saying - when sober - that she knew she was fighting for her life. I attended appointments with her, talked it through with her for hours. I realised eventually that it was to no avail. I'm not ashamed to say that it took every ounce of courage to walk away, and I only did it when it finally dawned on me that nothing I could say or do would change things. I hadn't even got to the "I deserve better than this" realisation - I just knew that I couldn't make it better through sheer force of will. I'm a professional woman, highly respected in my field, the last person that many assume would find themselves implicated in such a mess. I recognise now that I was in saviour/enabler mode. It's a pattern I can see has played out through my life and one I've since done lots of good and productive reflection on.

The fact is that alcoholics only give up if and when they want to. I have since read that there is around a very low chance of alcoholic recovery - some studies suggest as low as 10%. The overwhelming majority of drinkers never give up, and ultimately it kills them, in one way or another. I have met those who have recovered, and all power to them. But they are very much the exception and not the rule. One once said to me that you can give an alcoholic who doesn't want to give up every bit of support in the world, and they will still drink. The ones who do want to give up will do so no matter what support is available. The support will help, but it won't do the work for them. They need to want it for themselves and sadly most don't.

I think for those of us who have never had such a dangerous addiction it's damn near impossible to understand the mentality. I watched my ex burn all her relationships, lose her high flying career, be admitted to hospital time after time, and literally go home in patient transport and start drinking the minute she walked through the door. I remember one day realising that it was unfathomable to me. And then being very glad that it was unfathomable, because it wasn't what I was all about.

Ultimately she drank herself to death 6 months after I left. I knew it would happen, predicted it, tried to warn her about it. She refused to take it seriously. She died at 50.

I'm several years clear of the experience, and I appreciate this is probably hard to believe from where you are right now but I'm (almost!) glad I went through it. It taught me so much about myself, my own capabilities, it made me stronger. I have a high bar for treatment now, I resolutely know that no-one will ever bring that upset to my door again. I think that new strength must be either obvious or in some way infectious, as the friendships I've made since her death are some of the strongest and most mutually supportive I've known. I'm in another relationship, this time with someone very stable and mature, she used to work in alcohol support services and understands utterly what I weren't through. My life re-started at age 43. It's never too late.

When I read stories like yours I want to implore you to keep going, keep the relationship ended, keep focusing on yourself, keep making a new future for yourself. It has to be one step at a time - you won't get to a place of positivity overnight, you're probably in shock at this stage, I know I was. But have faith that life will improve. It absolutely will. You'll come out the other side, probably sooner than you realise, and certainly stronger than you can imagine right now. PM me if it would help. I'm sending you all my best wishes Smile

Itstheend · 31/12/2021 10:31

So we've been avoiding each other this morning and he's just come in, said sorry, offered me a tea and asked if I want to go out today. He's pretending it never happened. Time for the talk.

OP posts:
SunsetSmartmeter · 31/12/2021 10:35

Good luck OP. Stay strong 👍🏻

girlmom21 · 31/12/2021 10:39

Make him go OP. Do it today. You've got this. 2022 is your time to be happy.

tarasmalatarocks · 31/12/2021 11:05

Thing is OP about the money aspect— without someone around whose behaviour is taking up so much headspace, there are ways to look at maximising income— think about a little sideline or a couple of evenings of an online job , getting paid for surveys— all sorts of things these days— I find when you are with someone who is causing you mental anguish your head is too cluttered with shit about them to actually properly take stock

Alcemeg · 31/12/2021 11:30

Good luck OP! At some level, even if he protests, he must know that you'd be better cutting yourself free of him.

@SunsetSmartmeter, thank you for sharing your story. Wow. Delighted that life is now so much better for you. And how right you are that we can build our lives up again, all the stronger for what we've lived through.

Timetoretiretospain · 31/12/2021 12:14

I divorced at 54 after 30 year marriage. The divorce broke my heart .I’m getting married next year to a wonderful man. Good luck to you there is a great life waiting for you . X

SunsetSmartmeter · 31/12/2021 12:34

@Alcemeg

Good luck OP! At some level, even if he protests, he must know that you'd be better cutting yourself free of him.

@SunsetSmartmeter, thank you for sharing your story. Wow. Delighted that life is now so much better for you. And how right you are that we can build our lives up again, all the stronger for what we've lived through.

Thanks @Alcemeg I appreciate that Smile It's difficult when you've been through what others are going through, and you know how unbelievably hard it can be to get out, but you also absolutely know that things won't get better and you feel for that person, having been where they are, and are willing them along to break free. I just wanted to provide OP and anyone else in the same situation with a bit of hope and reassurance from someone who's been there and is out the other side.

I enjoyed reading your posts on this thread - wise words, especially regarding the process of life and how it's about re-evaluating where we we've got to, how and why we got there, where we want to go next, and sometimes about taking what can feel like risks, but learning as much if not more from what doesn't work out than from what does.

All the best to you Smile

GoodnightGrandma · 31/12/2021 12:37

@Itstheend

So we've been avoiding each other this morning and he's just come in, said sorry, offered me a tea and asked if I want to go out today. He's pretending it never happened. Time for the talk.
Don’t back down or he’ll think he can talk you round every time 💐
GoodnightGrandma · 31/12/2021 12:38

When you actually realise they aren’t going to change there is a sort of acceptance to your fate.
I’m the same , I don’t want to be divorced and alone, but i don’t want to keep living this Ground-Hog day life either.

Santahatesbraisedcabbage · 31/12/2021 12:40

I remarried a great man op!!
There can be life after a twat!

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