Sheri’s Story, Part 2: Recovering Our Marriage
We were stuck. I had not had a drop of alcohol in over a year, but our relationship was unloving and cold. Distrust and painful memories consumed our marriage and made recovery seem impossible. We set aside time each week to mend wounds from memories of drunken arguments and intoxicated antics, but there was still an invisible barrier between us.
My wife’s emotions seemed the most raw when we talked about the rare but painful times when my drinking impacted our four children. Sheri couldn’t seem to forgive me – her instincts as a mother were simply too strong. We had to find a way over the hump that separated us from repairing our badly damaged marriage.
Removing booze from an alcoholic marriage doesn’t fix anything.
Sobriety only exposes the depths of the wounds and makes room for the effort required for healing. In the second episode of a three part series about our marriage, Sheri and I discuss the gargantuan challenges of recovering our marriage from the grip of addiction to alcohol. Above is the true story of one of the most daunting obstacles we had to overcome to move forward with the healing process. Sheri tells of the steps we took as a family in this most painful episode of the Untoxicated Podcast.
It is hard to hear our message of hope buried under so much hurt and the years of denial and lies. But the message is there. Our relationship is among the lucky few to survive both addiction and the challenges of learning to love again in recovery.
Sheri’s haunting memories are relentless, and her story is not for the faint of heart. But this is real. This is alcoholism. This is marriage. And this is family.
We hope you’ll listen.
