Upset
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Here is me

I have what is called comorbidity. I suffer from alcohol use syndrome and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. The CPTSD is from prolonged physical and emotional child abuse. As it turns out, I drank to become numb from the PTSD. So, I am overcoming two brain disorders at the same time. I am in therapy for the PTSD. I will always have that, but the therapy is teaching me how to slow down and react to it, rather than proact to it as I used to. I also went through outpatient treatment for alcoholism, attend at least five group therapy (A.A.) meetings per week and have been sober for just over four years. But my family continues to reject me, preferring to define me by my past, rather than spending time with me and getting to know the person I am now. It just gives me one more struggle to cope with until I learn to overcome it and just stop trying to bring them along as I move forward in my recovery and therapy. It really, honestly hurts to get the worst stigma from my own wife and children.
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Justmeraeagain · 56-60, F
They might be afraid to hope
Northguy1 · 56-60, M
@Justmeraeagain I am too, anymore.
Justmeraeagain · 56-60, F
@Northguy1 Yes,substance abuse takes its toll on the whole household. You have to decide what life you want to live. I hope you keep choosing soberity.
Northguy1 · 56-60, M
@Justmeraeagain Sobriety, with or without my family, has become too valuable to me now. I've heard it said in A.A. groups many times: "If you want your life to change, you have to change your life." This is true, and none of it is easy, or even comfortable, especially into my fifth year of sobriety as I start to deal with the issues that I drank to push away. Life, I know, will get easier. But I also know that there are two things that all alcoholics hate: For things to stay the same, and for things to change.