A Life in Ruins

Growing up in an alcoholic home, she could not say that her childhood was a great one, nor could she say her early adulthood was wonderful either. Her childhood was filled with alcohol induced abuse which affected her teenage years. During these years, she married young to a man similar to that of her alcoholic father. Then, her early adulthood, she began to experiment with alcohol to the point that it controlled her life. Finally, it wasn't until her late twenties that she came to realize exactly what had went wrong with her life.

She grew up in a home with divorced parents, and her father was an alcoholic. At the age of seven she was visiting her father one weekend. Like any other visitation weekend, her father had tied one on again. However, this weekend set in her mind forever. She was seven years old that weekend when her father in a drunken stupor sexually molested her. The same thing happened again when she was nine, but this time it was her grandfather who sexually molested her in an intoxicated state. At the age of eleven and after intensive counseling, she took both men to court for the abuse that they had bestowed upon her.

The abuse stayed with her throughout her adolescence where she began to experiment with boys and alcohol both. This was her way of feeling like she was important and loved. She learned that if she drank alcohol herself that she could run away from the problems that haunted her. She continued to experiment with alcohol knowing the chances that she might too become an alcoholic herself. However, during this time she felt like she was in control of it. She began to preoccupy her time with men and sex instead of alcohol.

When she turned sixteen, she discovered she was pregnant and married the father of the child. It wasn't until a few years later she realized she had married a man who was the equivalent of her father, the alcoholic. She took pride in her pregnancy. Her family, friends, and even her therapist believed that her pregnancy cured her from the path she had fallen down in the years prior.

Shortly after her son was born, her husband began drinking to the point of being out of control. During his drunken stupors, he began having affairs. Every time she forgave him and blamed it on the alcohol and the situation. Then, she began to drink to cope with her husband's infidelity. This would cause her life to turn upside down. Her and her husband began to fight over the affairs that were becoming more and more often. Then, one night she confronted him on another affair, and this time the fight turned physical. Things continued to worsen until the day came she realized they needed marriage counseling and to stop drinking alcohol completely.

After eleven years of marriage, she begged and begged, but her husband refused to abstain from alcohol. The marriage was broken beyond repair, and she filed for divorce. She realized the effects of the alcohol and put herself into a treatment center to get sober. She always thought it was her husband's affairs that ruined their marriage. After twenty-seven years, she had finally discovered the root of all problems was the alcohol not the situations. The perfect childhood she should have had was ruined by an alcoholic father and grandfather. Then, she married the equivalent of her father. Eleven years later, her perfect marriage was ruined because of alcohol. Finally, she made a stand to change her destiny. Today, she stands on her own two feet and has made a new life, but this one is without alcohol. She no longer lives a life ruined.