Watching a loved one, in this case a spouse, struggle with addiction is hard enough. But what happens when they go off to rehab and fall for a fellow patient? After four years of marriage and a kid, OP's wife has all but run off with her new companion, leaving her family behind and her husband to pick up the pieces.
Should he let his wife go? Is it best to simply cut ties and move on?
Below is cOgorilla2020's story.
My wife is in rehab for heroin, 2000 miles away. We've been married for 4 years in October, and have one son. I don't have any drug problems, I drink socially at most. But since she's been in rehab, our relationship has been struggling. She's been gone for around 45 days now, and the distance is killing us. In the last 2 weeks, she admitted to have feelings for someone (a guy who's in rehab). I asked her to cut ties (delete him off of Facebook, stop hanging out around him) because she is married with a family and getting involved with anyone would be a rash decision, especially an ex-convict with a history of meth use. I've never worried about her being unfaithful until now. When I first asked her to cut ties she agreed and said she wasn't thinking when she let herself get feelings for him, and that she wants to come home to her family after she completes this program. That was 3 days ago, and she now refuses to cut ties and even has posted a few selfies with him and hearts all of his pictures on Facebook. When I confronted her about it, she called me immature and insecure. So yesterday I told her that I can't do this anymore, that her not keeping her word or respecting me or boundaries in general is more then I can handle and want a divorce. I was willing to forgive her and support her through her addiction, but I'm not willing to wait around while she messes around in California. She's making me feel like she just wants to keep me around so she'll have somewhere to come back to, and someone to send her money. Her family has since disowned her, not willing to help her at all. Am I over-reacting? I don't feel like I am, but I'm also an emotional wreck since she left.
TL/DR: wife turned out to be a junkie, went to rehab, caught feelings for a meth junkie from another state and can't respect boundaries or my feelings. Now I can't figure out if I'm over-reacting.
For the kid's sake, move on.
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Dude...come on. It's time to leave. For you and for your kid's sake.
OP said his wife isn't trying to get better, so "in sickness" no longer applies.
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Well written. That's precisely what's happening. It's very sad, but she will absolutely just use you at this point. I hope she comes around in the future and can be a positive role model for your son, but that's not happening any time soon; it seems clear she will get works before she gets better. Good luck to you and your kid!
And promising to "love" someone in sickness doesn't have to mean staying married to them.
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People forget that you can love a person who is sick, but there's nothing in the vows demanding you stay married to them...
And even if she does get better, he owes it to himself to be happy.
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Also, if she does actually get better and break the addiction, years down the road or whatever, remember that you won't owe it to her to get back with her. You don't have to wait. You can build your own life. When she is ready, support her growth in her relationship with her son. That's all you can do.
Of course, being unfaithful isn't a sickness, it's a choice.
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Well, that's kind of the point of putting it in the marriage vow, the whole point is you're supposed to stay married to someone who is sick. I don't think f*cking a guy you met at rehab really qualifies as "sick" though.
One person advised caution when filing for divorce.
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I'd be concerned about her doing something stupid if she weren't monitored while she's processing the prospect of divorce. Either relapsing or overdosing.
And to remember that divorce is not because of addiction, but because of disloyalty.
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It's not her sickness, though. You are loving her through her illness, you're drawing the line at how she's disrespecting your relationship.
You tried - but don't enable selfish behavior.
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She's abandoned the relationship and is planning on being unfaithful, if not already there.
You did what you could and your support is not helping her anymore. It's just enabling more selfish behavior.
Just get out while you can.
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OP, immediately filing for divorce and cutting all contact with this woman wouldn't be considered overreacting in this situation. What you're doing is being a doormat. Get away from her as fast as you can.
Hopefully, it all goes smoothly.
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Yea, this is gonna be one of the easier divorces your lawyer has to work on.
Good luck, and look after yourself and your kid.
Try not to follow the bad advice given here, because you don't want to get the results that these guys did.
U/Duckerton375 asked: What's the worst advice someone ever gave you, but you still followed?
The workplace can bring a cornucopia of terrible advice. Don’t follow these unless you want to get fired.
​Bad jobs are usually not worth it.
Stick with a job no matter how bad it is. I stayed with a terrible job working retail, dealing with horrible customers and sexual harassment. I was told I wouldn't find anything better.
"No, no, you misunderstand. I said you wouldn't find anything better at making you feel like complete garbage."
This gets really creepy really fast.
frustrated workplace GIFGiphy"After you put in a job application, you need to call them at least once a day every day until they hire you."
Note: this did not get me hired. It got me called out by the HR person I was calling and forbidden to ever contact their facility again.
I work for a law firm that employees over 1500 people in the home office alone. Once I received a call from the building security saying, "Insert Name is here to speak with the owner." Well we are run by a committee so that's odd. Found out they just applied for a job and wanted to talk directly to the person that would potentially hire them. Told him the firm will contact them to schedule an interview. They refused to leave without "talking to the owner." Had security escort them out of the building.
​This is absolutely not true.
"Sleep is for people who do not want success" great words from my uncle, it almost killed me.
Now I may be oversleeping.
​Interpersonal relationships are also a big breeding ground for terrible advice. Don’t listen to any of these.
Heartbreaking.
My father always tought me and my brother that "having friends is bad and in the end they will never be there for you" so everytime I told my father about my friends he would get kinda mad and give me the advice to stop talking to them.
Now I am afraid of people and have several trust issues, thanks dad.
​This won’t end well.
A Christmas Story GIF by filmeditorGiphyIn the fifth grade my teacher was talking about bullying, then she said "if anyone tries to bully you just agree with them." So the next time I got bullied I agreed with the bully and they bullied me more.
Dude one time I saw an anti bullying video that told the victims to just BE NICE TO THE BULLY. Like the bully was hurling insults and the victim was smiling and complimenting him. My first thought was about how much I hated the mere thought that this would work. My second thought was of how the people who came up with that method had clearly never been bullied.
​Oof.
When I met my now wife at the age of 19, one of my coworkers said that it's very important to start at the bottom with presents and work your way up, she still has the socks I gave her on our first anniversary on the wall over our bed as a reminder...
I'm still trying to teach my boyfriend about good presents and bad presents. Biscuits from the supermarket = bad present. Cheap unbranded laptop battery from China as my only present = bad present (and only lasted 2 months). Anything off my 7-page wishlist = good present. It's literally a list of things I want to receive as presents.
​Can tell you from experience that this is a bad idea.
Had a falling out with some friends. My husband recommended I reach out to an old friend who ghosted me suddenly in a manner that induced some pretty severe abandonment trauma. Went for it anyways because "it's been so long, surely they changed". Am now experiencing the same things as last time.
When you follow bad advice, it can lead to mistakes that you just can’t come back from.​
Buying a house is tricky.
for sale dancing GIF by Lisa VertudachesGiphy"Buy a home now before the prices go up!" -my FIL in 2006.
We bought in 2007 and paid $259,500 for our 1,300 sq ft house (we really couldn't afford it and had an 80/20 so we had 8% interest for one loan and 6% on the other) and in 2008 it was worth $97,000 so refinancing wasn't even an option. We watched all of our neighbors walk away or get foreclosed on but we kept paying our bills and as of this very moment our house is worth $462,000. I'm so happy we stuck it out, we both worked our @sses off and the house will be paid off in 2 years.
It worked out for us, it's a horrible idea. Especially since 1300 sq ft houses are $460+k
My heartbreaks for future generations, I honestly don't know how people are going to afford housing in the future.
It’s there for a reason.
"Never apply for any government assistance."
Cue years of suffering trying to work full-time with a painful disability. Quit a particularly terrible job, and wanted to apply for food aid until I could find another gig; a friend with lots of DHS experience recommended I apply for Social Security "just to get in the system." Turns out my disability was bad enough to get accepted the first time, which I wasn't expecting. Really could've used that support, oh, the 30+ previous years of my life.
Credit is important to have.
I was told to not get a credit card until after college. I was super fortunate to have my college paid for so I had no loans, car paid in cash, no credit card or anything to start building credit. Found myself out in the world at 22 years old with a credit score of 0.
So while a lot of this bad advice came from trusted people, oftentimes they were too misinformed to give that advice in the first place. Don't trust the word of one person--do your research, and make decisions for yourself.
It'll be way better in the long run