Focus on giving up drinking on your own – and your husband’s lack of support when you are healthier, says Mariella Frostrup
The dilemma I am a 50-something mum of teens, with a busy job and the menopause. My drinking has increased over the last five years – only in the evening, and it has never impacted work or family, but it peaked at a bottle of wine five out of seven nights a week. My husband joined me.
I realised that I am an alcoholic. I asked my husband not to drink in the house for a while, or to wait until after I was in bed. But he won’t stop on the basis I am the problem drinker and not him. He says I am being a control freak and setting out unacceptable rules. Recently, he persuaded me to have a glass of wine; I drank a bottle and had the worst hangover the following day. Tonight, my husband asked me to bring home a couple of bottles of wine, but I refused. I asked if he could refrain and to support me. He went off on one again about me trying to control him and that if I can’t cope with him drinking then I really need to get some help.
Addiction is individual so recovery is a process you need to face alone
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