When I first got into the program what I heard most was "focus on yourself." This wasn't what I wanted or expected to hear at that time in my life. First I came to the program to fix the alcoholic in my life and second it seemed selfish to put myself before anyone else especially him. But I was in a lot of pain and felt powerless and really didn't have any place else to go.
My friends sickness has taken me back to those feelings of powerlessness. Watching someone else struggle and say they are going to do what it takes to get better and then watching them not do it. Having their own ideas about what will fix the problem when everyone can see that there is an obvious solution. For the alcoholic stop drinking in this case eat even if you don't want to even if you feel full.
I know from my illness and depression that you can get stuck emotionally and feel like you will be sick forever. I was stuck in my thoughts and couldn't even consider that it was physical and not emotional and I could be helped. I had been through grief before and thought I would eventually get over it but it had never lasted this long before. I did eventually get over it but it has taken me almost a decade to feel like life is worth living. If I had listened to anyone but myself it wouldn't have taken me as long.
We don't get good advice from ourselves all the time. When we are in a crisis we go back to being a child and we resist what is happening to us. Our thoughts say "why me?" We look around for someone to save us or the very least feel sorry for us. Sometimes we get that but then people want to offer solutions and then this makes the child in us mad and more resistant. Obviously no one understands what I am going through and there isn't any simple solution. We just want this to stop happening to us right now.
This make those around us "the adults" weary after awhile and eventually everyone moves on. Leaving us with our childish thoughts and mostly alone. It is a process that takes as long as it takes.
No one understands this more than I do. I made it easy on everyone and divorced all of my friends at the same time. Mostly because I didn't want to be a burden and thought that at least I wouldn't have to worry about my obligations to other people. It gave me time to think my way out of it. Not!
I did have one person who stuck with me someone who started out as a casual friend whose soul purpose in life seems to be care taking. She didn't try to fix me just be there for me making me eat. She wasn't trying to change me back to the more likable person I had been before. She was just there for me until I got better and when I did she moved on to someone else.
With tragedy growth is inevitable. Grow or suffer.. We can decide to stay stuck or we can get sick and tired of being sick and tired and do something about it. Our child mind is trying to catch up and it is pissed off that once again it has to do the work. We imagine there is a point in life where things will be easy and sometimes it is but we don't appreciate it until we experience the opposite.
We can't save other people they have to save themselves. We can share our experience, strength and hope and just be there. He is a program person and just like me he has the foundation to find his way out of this. He is also like I was he has a physical component that is skewing his thought process.
It will take longer for him to come back from this without more food.
When I first came to the program I hated the idea that I was powerless over my husbands drinking and that I needed to focus on my own recovery. Seriously there was nothing wrong with me if only he would do what he was suppose to do we would both be happy. I can say that about my friend and his fear of food but it isn't true. He will get through it and in the mean time I have to focus on my own recovery.
We can't help the people closest to us we are perceived as parents and rejected. I will do my part and offer food and know that it will all work out eventually. Hopefully it won't take a decade like it did for me.
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