A Guest Post by Mr. Untipsy

Dear Readers,

I asked my Loved One to write a guest post this week.

(I got this idea from Lucy at A Hangover Free Life.)
I didn't tell him what to write, and this is written from his heart.

Living the Dry Life 

"I am Mr. Untipsy. Untipsy Teacher has asked me to write a guest post this week.  I’m a little concerned that I will not be able to offer any insights and not being a writer, I’m a bit intimidated but I’ll give it a go.

I have been married to Untipsy for 39 years. We’ve had some wonderful, fun years together.

But also during this time, I watched my wife chase after relief from the stresses of her teaching career and various health concerns in her life.  She often chose alcohol to relieve that stress and anxiety. At first, we would toast the end of the week with a bottle of champagne on a Friday night.  Then out to dinner on Saturday with more drinks and a bottle of wine.  These “stress relief” nights began to expand to include one or two nights during the week. There always seemed to be a group of friends heading to a bar for Happy Hour.  Soon these gatherings grew to three or four times each week.  Untipsy Teacher would often have too many drinks resulting in tearful calls for a ride home or worse, no call at all nor contact for hours until I heard the car pull into our driveway.

I really had no idea of how to deal with the situation.  I felt powerless to help. I tried to reason with her, I yelled at her, I told her to find help, but what I mostly did was worry.  I worried about her health. I worried about her safety and the safety of others on the road.  I worried about our future together.  I worried about possible arrests and jail time for her or lawsuits against us from others.  The hardest part was not knowing what to say or do to help. Not knowing on the drive home from work if I would find her drunk at home or still out at some bar. The point is, a person’s drinking problem goes far beyond him or her. The drinking has a ripple effect touching everyone surrounding that person.  What I found was that nothing I said or did would work until she was ready to seek help and commit to the work required to quit.

A year ago she made that commitment to quit drinking and has worked incredibly hard to maintain her sobriety ever since.  I offered whatever help I could, as little as it was. I encouraged her to seek help wherever it was offered. I quit drinking right along with her, though I must admit it wasn’t hard for me.  I often preferred a coke to a beer anyway.  I tried to remind her that life goes on without drinking.  In fact, it goes on in a much better way.  We can still go out for dinner or dancing, although I hate dancing.  Now we challenge bartenders to come up with decent non-alcoholic drinks. I found that our dinner bills are much less expensive than they used to be since we’ve cut out $100 bottles of wine and $15 martinis.  Not drinking has improved our married life and cut down the number of senseless arguments we used to have. We still find bumps in the road but at least we aren’t making them craters.

Untipsy Teacher recently celebrated a year of sobriety. I am also celebrating her accomplishment this past year right alongside of her. Each day I marvel at how hard she is working at not drinking.  Each day I feel such pride and gratitude at her accomplishments and each day I’m so grateful that I have my wife back.  I want to thank all of you who have reached out with words of encouragement and offers of help. I wish the same for all of you."

With Love On Day 382