What Sobriety Meant For My Partner’s Life

Photo by Josh Hild on Unsplash

When I wrote a piece of what sobriety meant for me, it made me think about my most recent relationship. How did sobriety affect my last relationship? This might have a better title if I said “How sobriety might have caused me to break up with my boyfriend of six years” but that’s a too verbose. And no, I’m not saying when you go sober, your relationship or relationships will end, but sobriety did play a hand in mine.

So, what happened?

I went sober in 2019 and it wasn’t on a whim or because I had gotten a DUI- it was because this was the first time I had ever seen my boyfriend cry. I had been drinking more and the night before, had drank so much that when he tried to wake me up, I wouldn’t move at first. Thinking that something had happened to me, upset him so much that he wasn’t sure about the future and that broke me. I couldn’t take that this reserved, quiet, person was breaking down in front of me about my drinking habits.

So I quit.

I didn’t cut back or rethink my drinking habits, I stopped cold turkey and knew I could never go back. And unfortunately, there were times that I blamed him for having to stop. My brain was trying to think of ways to start drinking again and my reason for stopping being out of the picture seemed like the perfect idea. I don’t doubt the first few…