This morning, my boyfriend asked me if I would be driving out to his place tonight. I paused, not quite knowing how to respond. I had just stepped off a plane, arriving home from a business trip which had been short, but exhausting. My house was a mess, and I had a list a mile [...]

When you’re in the thick of a dysfunctional relationship with an alcoholic, it’s hard to imagine life will ever be “normal” again. Then as you go through the healing process and life does become more manageable, it can be difficult to stop stressing and micro-managing every aspect of our lives and the lives of those [...]

My father had Alzheimer’s, so whenever I hear about anything to do with degenerative brain function, I tend to listen. This morning I spent an enjoyable half hour listening to an archived radio broadcast a friend had sent me the link to. The show was an edition of the CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, and featured [...]

They say that infrants grow at the same rate as the strength of our arm muscles, enabling us to carry them as they age, but only to a point. There reaches a time when the size and weight of our child force us to let them go, so they can walk and run and begin [...]

My fourteen year old son sometimes reminds me more of a five year old.  Despite being at an age where normally, teenage children are stretching boundaries in order to gain independence, he’s becoming even more dependent on me.  In the short term, this isn’t a bad thing, and it’s quite understandable in the circumstances.  He [...]

There is considerable opinion within both the medical and alcoholic treatment communities that alcoholism may be genetically inherited.  I’m not sure if I believe that, but I am open enough to the possibility, I know that I want to teach my children how to avoid behaviours that might lead to or encourage alcoholism.  And whether or not [...]

If you’ve ever tried to stay on a diet during Easter or Halloween, or had to suffer through a Valentine’s Day when there was no romance in your life, you know how hard it can be to go going against the flow of a holiday.   Consider how your alcoholic feels at this time of the [...]

One can imagine that life with an alcoholic can be different for children, dependent upon their age.  But regardless of how old the kids are, all human beings know when they are loved, or neglected in some way.  My children were between the ages of six and thirteen during the worst times of living with [...]