What is detachment? What does it have to do with dealing with my alcoholic addict?
Ultimately, you are powerless over your alcoholic addicts behavior. In the end it is their choice to drink or use drugs. You can respond in one of two ways. You can take an emotional roller coaster ride with your alcoholic addict. Or you can distance yourself emotionally from their behavior. Detachment with love and compassion means that you still love your alcoholic but you do not let their behavior control or manipulate your feelings. You do not get sad because your alcoholic drinks. You do not get depressed or angry because your addict uses. This can sound cold. However, you are only detaching from your alcoholic addicts behavior, not from the person you love. By no longer entangling your emotions with your alcoholic addicts drinking and drugging, you are allowing yourself to develop and maintain a healthier emotional state, in spite of your alcoholic addicts behavior. This was one of the hardest things for me to learn with my alcoholic addict wife. When I first ran into the concept
