"I came primed and ready when I met 'her'."
"I had this cellophane wall that I couldn't reach out and you couldn't reach in."
"I have to remember for me, that I am my own qualifier for Al-Anon.
I marry alcoholic women because I qualify for Al-Anon.
I don't qualify for Al-Anon because I marry alcoholic women."
"My story is a little different from a lot of Al-Anons.
I didn't come here to get anybody sober.
I was completely and totally isolated and alone except for one sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous.
He did not live in my town. He had been my counselor and he was my line to sanity.
I came to you because every day I was standing in front of the mirror and saying
'I have it in me to hold it together - today.'"
"I was never happy at any point in my life. If it was Saturday, I wished it was Monday. If it were winter, I wanted summer to come and if it was night I wished it was day. It was always going to be better at some other time or when something else happened. That's changed for me today and I am very grateful. I depended on other people to make me happy and when I wasn't happy it was someone else's fault."
"Gee, alcoholism has really hollowed you out, hasn't it?"
"We had skid row at home."
"Our Father which art in heaven, how'd you know my name?"
"I qualify for the program of Al-Anon because my husband tells me he's an alcoholic and I believe him! I have not always believed everything he's told me."
"I got real good at playing games."
"I am a sponge for other people's emotions."
"And elephants do what elephants do."
The Al-Anon spends half a life cleaning up after the elephant. Then the alcoholic comes into the rooms and laughs at the mess they made of "their" lives.
Detachment says in part,
"Elephants do what they do but not to poop on me...but I can love them right where they are..and I didn't have to fix him."
"I quit saying I was sorry so much because that is not my name."
"... cause some are sicker than others."
"I always thought that if I could be free then I would be happy but, you know, the Al-Anon Program has taught me how to be free...it's an inside job and it doesn't matter that much what 'they' say or 'they' do, it's all inside. And when we have the ability to have some answers in this program, then we're not in bondage anymore. I found, for me, that I was dependent as long as I didn't have answers."