When and how will this end?

I go to sleep at night feeling sick, I wake feeling sick, work takes away the sickness for a while. Maybe this is what Alanon means by telling us we are sick?

So the latest in my sons chaotic life is he is about to be made homeless, and I won’t invite him to stay in my warm cosy house, for my sanity, for my partnership, for his I hope, dignity and chance to get over this disease.

Have you any idea how hard that is to do? With the weather we are experiencing I can’t think about him living on the streets, he’s so vulnerable, but I can’t, just can’t have him back with me, it won’t help him, that’s if he survives. What a choice to have to make, tough love at its very hardest.

So how has he found himself in this situation? Alcohol of course is the real reason but so is his smarter, clever manipulating girlfriend.

They were given notice to leave the flat they share, the flat I helped my son get into, the flat he took her into when she had nowhere to go.

That was about 3 or 4 weeks ago. But she, to be fair got looking for a place for them to move to, she was the driving force as she treats Faith like a child and unable to make decisions.

At this time Faith was 2 weeks sober, she was still drinking, yes in their flat, she is a what you could call functioning alcoholic although unable to hold a job down long term. Faith is an all or nothing alcoholic, He constantly asked her to support him and stop drinking, but she didn’t think she needed to.

I knew this was a dead end relationship, two alcoholics cannot live together and survive.

So they found a nicer place than they have now, their own bathroom 🛁, bigger and brighter, all positives for Faith to stay sober for. But her drinking got to him and the inevitable happened. So now Faith is on a binge, no point trying to talk to him or reason with him, I will just wait until the drinking ends, which it will do.

But in the mean time while he has been drinking, his girlfriend has told him she can’t deal with his drinking anymore! She doesn’t want to be with him, which has sent him into more of a downward cycle, with hospital admissions, police involved as he was threatening to take his life. No physical help, just discharged from hospital to go home and drink again as he cant cope.

She has told him their new home is now in her name as she has come into money due to her divorce, she doesn’t want him there. That now leaves him with less than 2 weeks to find somewhere to live, while on benefits that she has controlled, so god knows where he stands with that. A hopeless task to find somewhere in that time, and I can’t even start to help him while he continues to drink.

I have no idea where he has found the money to buy alcohol as she controls all the money, maybe she has planned this, I wouldn’t be surprised.

So the last few days I have just been waiting, waiting for the time he stops drinking and I can speak to him “Faith” my son, again.

Thats why I have been feeling sick, every moment. Thank god I have found mindfulness, it helps me sleep when my head is full and my heart is breaking.

And this evening is the time, he’s stopped, whether it’s because he’s not physically able to get to the shop or the money has finally gone I don’t know, but tonight I spoke to a sick sober Faith.

Now I have to try not to thing about the agony his body is going through, hoping his girlfriend will call the ambulance when it’s needed as he’s fitting. I’ve been through this so many many times, this time is a little different though, I don’t know if he is physically and mentally strong enough to get through it.

I am helpless, as he is, over this disease.

I can only pray, and ask for your prayers, that somehow he gets through this, the homelessness will be another mountain for him to climb.

I need to find a positive quote to put in here….. I’ve found it

 

It’s been a while

Just a quick update really.

I guess it’s positive that I’ve not been needing to write down my feelings, but I think that could be a mixture of an improvement in Faiths world and me making a definite effort to get my mind and life in a calmer place.

For me, I have started a mindfulness course, well started and finished as it was only for 5 weeks. I loved it. I loved being allowed to have that me time, time to just stop that chatter in my head, time to just stop. Stop thinking, analysing, worrying, trying to sort the worlds problems, just to relax. I can’t recommend it enough.

I try to do a bit at home when I can. I have found it helps when I cant sleep.

It has also reintroduced me to yoga, a class followed on from the mindefullness , I thought I was too old and stiff, but it is such a relaxing class, and at the end we get 10 more minutes of blissful relaxation, with warm lavender pillows to cover our eyes, the stretching is worth that 10 minutes.

And so to Faith. Things are better. Because it seems he fits when he drinks now rather than when he stops. So when he drinks now it’s for shorter periods, he has more time sober than drunk now, which is an absolute positive.

He has put on weight, gained in confidence, enough to start going for interviews for jobs. I don’t think he is ready for that but when he tells me he has a second interview I have to respond positively. And now he has been offered a job. Nearly four weeks sober, a miracle for him.

He should have been ecstatic when he phoned me to tell me, but he actually forgot to tell me, because he was drinking.

Ive had the reasons or excuses. His girlfriend continues to drink, she seems to manage her drinking where as Faith can’t, he is either totally drinking or totally abstaining. I can only guide him, he has to make his own decisions.

Whether he will be able to get himself sober and in the right place before he starts this new job, his first job in over four years at least, I don’t know.

Today his dad, my x husband had an accident, they think at the moment it was caused possibly by a heart attack, he is OK but in hospital. I give Faith positive comments, he is worried about his dad, another reason to drink. If he only knew, him being sober would be the best medicine for his dad.

He has remarried so I am out of the loop shall we say. But my other son has given me information I can pass to Faith. I don’t want him stressing about his dad, he cannot cope with stress.

So, a positive post in that Faith is a lot healthier than he has been in a long time due to longer periods of sobriety. I have found a way to help me cope with his drinking and the sadness in my heart.

But tonight he is drinking.

If anyone would like to pray for him to help him, to help him along his troubled road I would be grateful.

I have got used to just waiting and seeing what will happen.

I don’t hold out much hope about the job, but who knows……

I will let you know.

In the time I have taken to write this, Faith has called in secret from his bathroom. His girlfriend lost her job today, they found alcohol on her. She wants sympathy, he is struggling to give it while drinking himself. He has promised to see the doctor tomorrow to get something to help ease withdrawal symptoms when he stops drinking.

We shall see.

Sending love to anyone else struggling with this disease, either themselves or a loved one.

 

Laughter in the face of adversity

Well not a lot has changed since I last wrote, but a fair bit has happened.

I’m going to share with you what I think has been Faiths most ummmm most traumatic, strange, sad yet funny moment yet. This has to be anonymous, otherwise I could not share, you will understand why.

He has been drinking, no shock there! But wanting to stop. I’m sure you will know by now there is no where you can go and say OK I want to stop drinking , can you help me. It doesn’t work like that.

So he went cold turkey. Thank god I didn’t know, he didn’t tell me and as he had been drinking I hadn’t been in regular contact with him, I try to step back when he is.

So when he phoned me last week to “catch up” I was surprised to hear him sober and even more surprised when he told me he had been sober for a week.  I was like “what? How did that happen? When? How did I miss this? He thought I knew.

The even more surprising (OK I didn’t believed him) news was that his partner was also sober. How on earth did I miss this?

Where have I been? Normally if he was detoxing on his own I would be going through it with him, the sickness, everything else that is so awful when someone addicted to alcohol just stops drinking. What no fits and paramedics?

Anyway, somehow he got through it and I didn’t have to go through the pain with him. Bloody wonderful and wonderous.

Isnt that just great? Yes to good to be true. Thursday last week he called me, I was at work.

Hang on a moment Faith let me get somewhere more private

“This is my goodbye call mum, I’m going to die”

Sorry Faith, what did you say?

“I am going to die mum, my veins are joining up, they told me I am going to die, my skin is falling off, they are crawling out of my skin”

OK Faith, don’t panic, do you remember when you detox your brain does odd things, you see things that aren’t real, please believe me, I am your mum, this is your brain playing tricks on you, you are fine. None of this is real even though you think it is.

“you don’t believe me , I will send you a video, you will see all these creatures on my skin”

Faith sent me a video of a very shaky but plain hand.

Its fine, I can’t see anything, please believe me.

I noticed from the video that he was down the beach, I was concerned he would go into the water to wash off the creatures. So I told him to go home, I thought he would be safer.

He agreed he would go home, I went back to work but kept trying to call him, but he didn’t answer.

5pm, I’m about to leave work , I get a call from his girlfriend.

“Please I need your help, Faith has jumped from the bathroom window, the first responders are here, I need to go to hospital with him but I have no money to get home on the bus, can you help me”

OK, here we go again……

It appears he jumped naked from the bathroom window, after stripping off, because his clothes were full of these creature

Of course, I sent money, if she goes it means I don’t have to.

So he was in hospital for a few days, not many, the Psych team were supposed to see him but they were busy, obviously jumping naked from your bathroom window is not a major trauma.

So now he is back home with “boots” on both feet as he has broken, bruised or whatever to his feet.

You know what that means? He can’t walk to the shop and buy alcohol? Hallel bloody ujah. Sorry if I offend anyone.

And I can laugh with him, about the fact that he could have been stuck, half in, half out, completely naked, of his bathroom window.

I can laugh with him about the fact that he was completely naked on a Thursday afternoon outside his flat refusing to put his pants on because they were full of creatures..

I can laugh with him because today he is sober and that is all that matters.

And you can understand why this has to be completely unanimous.

His dignity, the little he has, needs to be protected .

So hopefully this is a spell of sobriety, but I know isolation and depression will set in, I will try to help him, when he is sober I will do whatever I can to support him.

Sober and depressed is to me a million times better than him being under the influence.

Bye for now….