Hi all,
I have been with my partner for two years and he is my dearest friend and someone who I feel I can truly be myself with. About a year ago he told me that he believes he is an alcoholic - because he could never stop at one drink (or five, or six etc) and he felt dependent on it. I have seen a lot of people engage with alcohol this way who don't believe they have a problem at all, and I guess I thought since he was acknowledging it himself, he was the one who identified the problem, and I hadn't really felt any particular issue with his drinking, I figured it wasn't a big deal. But I wanted to support him - so we've done a few different things over the year, we've both quit drinking together for short periods of time. We've had a calendar where we marked the days he didn't drink so he could see how he was doing across the course of a month (he went two months where he only drank a few days of the month). But I guess the past few months have been stressful, with pressure of study and social isolation. He started drinking fairly regularly again, the main issue of which really is that he can't really afford it and also that he never really invites me to drink with him, so he'll come home with a bottle and sit down with it and not even ask if I want a glass (though is happy to share if I ask). For a couple of weeks recently he started exercising every morning and afternoon and he didn't drink in that time, but then we went away and had a big weekend.
Anyway, just recently he got so drunk and it was actually really hard to handle. He was unpredictable, forgetful, and eventually hostile. When we got home he passed out and I wrote down everything that had happened for him to read the next morning, which he did. He was very upset by it all, and felt he didn't deserve to be with me. The next day he emailed me from work and said he wants to quit drinking and asked me to talk to my family for support with this. He asked me to tell my parents so they don't offer him drinks at dinners etc.
I feel like this is positive, but I'm scared as well of the possibility that things could get worse, not better. I guess I think I'm actually facing the reality that he's an alcoholic for the first time. Any support would be much appreciated... Thank you all.
