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Alcoholic Partner

I caught my alcoholic partner coming back from the local shops with Vodka and some crisps (potato chips in the US).

This seems like nothing in a normal household but it is unusual here. I was in the garden having been on the computer. When I am on the computer she thinks I am out of it, distanced and she can sneak some booze into the apartment without me noticing.

Unfortunately for her I felt like a break and went out into the garden at the same time she was returning from the shops, about a 7 minute walk away. She had been drinking already as she was showing "the signs". Although if I had mentioned it she would have lost her mind completely and defended herself to the death.

Anyway, there I was in the garden with my own booze (a glass of white wine) and I ask where she had been. She looked and sounded guilty and perhaps knowing I would know that she had bought Vodka, owned up to it. This is so very rare believe me. She will normally never, ever admit to having Vodka and if I find some hidden away somewhere she will say it has been there for a long time and not been drunk.

She will not, never, admit to drinking but she did this time. She said she had Vodka in the paper bag (and I could see she had bought some crisps as well - nice ones too!). I felt the bag and it was a small bottle, about one third the size of a normal 70 ml (or is it 75ml?) bottle.

I had promised that I would buy her a large flat screen television (cost would be about £700) to go in her bedroom if she stayed sober until after Christmas 2009. This was an additional motivator to the AA meetings. So after she admitted to buying the Vodka and letting me feel the paper bag for the bottle (once again unusual for her as she hides and denies to the death normally) she asked whether it would mean that I wouldn't buy the TV. I made a non-committal comment and she carried on to her bedroom to drink the Vodka, neat from the bottle in her usual style.

She was asleep within about 40 minutes and is still asleep as I write this post. She works tomorrow, starting at 10:30 so I expect that she will be sober. When she drinks a small bottle of neat Vodka it is like a glass of wine for the rest of us. She'll be "bunged up" tomorrow. This means (for overseas readers) that her nose becomes blocked due to dehydration caused by the alcohol.

Anyway, she is back on the booze in a kind of controlled way but, and this is the big but, it will gradually become less controlled and lead to a binge. When that happens, she will binge for several days continuously (perhaps 7-10 days in bed) and her new and precious job will be in jeopardy.

From Alcoholic Partner to an earlier alcoholic partner post

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