Hey everyone,
I came out of residential rehab in March. Sadly as a result of my addiction, my wife and I live miles apart but still see each other once or twice a month. I live temporarily with my Mum again just whilst I get my life and finances back in order.
I think my biggest struggle has been with isolation and loneliness. Loneliness isn’t just a physical state for me though. My mum and her partner are always around. I just do not have any friends that share my new interests anymore and I can feel a deep sense of loneliness even if i’m around a group of people. I still love and keep in touch with my friends but they are all heavy drinkers and it is what they do in their spare time. Perhaps in the future i can still join them in their plans just minus the alcohol. I’m just not quite ready for that I don’t think.
It is almost as if I need a dating site but strictly for friendships! I haven’t tried but i can imagine it isn’t easy to meet people with genuine intentions online. (My wife and i are still very much in love and plan to live together in the future at some point when we are ready).
Diary keeping is a recovery strategy that I’ve found has helped me and that I learned in recovery. I’m hoping i can use this blogging tool as my diary and therefore a useful well-being strategy. I’m also very keen to hear from anyone who can relate to my situation in any way. I have always been caring in my personal life and as part of my career so I am very happy to give advise to anyone too who feels down and just like chatting.
I wish you all the best.
Adam x
Hi AdamCC and welcome to the tribe.
Thanks for sharing. I wrote a thoughtful and lengthy response to your blog post and my pc promptly crashed – as so often happens to me these days. I live in a semi-remote regional area where access to the wonders of the internet and online services are limited.
Anyway, to cut a long story short I just want to say how glad I am to hear that (1) you have the support of, and are able to live with your Mum and her partner in this critical post treatment time and (2) you have maintained your relationship with your wife and plan to live and love together again once the time is right. These two things may just be what gets you through.
I wish you all the best in the months to come. Take care, Samarkand.
Hi Samarkand,
I really appreciate the response. I’m sorry that you lost your full message! I can sympathise with a recent very long e-mail I had to send to a third party for my job and near the end Outlook froze and crashed and it was all gone. Very frustrating!
I hope you are keeping well.
All the best, Adam