Thank You - An Essay

A friend of mine is going through a tough time. What he is going through now reminded me of something I had written in my journal a while ago that I knew I would share here at some point. Here it is:


Thank you for pushing me away. Thank you for sparing me having to watch you self-destruct. Thank you for saving me watching you repeat the roller-coaster ride of unhealthy patterns. Thank you for sparing me hearing about you driving drunk again, and again, and having to worry about your life. Thank you for saving me the time of driving out of my way, by miles and miles, to visit you.

Thank you for sparing me the headaches caused by arguing against you stubbornly held wacked out beliefs. I used to only get those from religious fundamentalists. You, however, put them all to shame!

Thank you for saving me from having to witness you pass out, sometimes in mid-conversation, from another night of drinking.

Thank you for teaching me my boundaries, my limits of what levels of insanity I will accept in my life…including my own insanity. The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Watching your insanity enabled me to see my own, which was continually trying to get through to you and then past your walls. I kept trying to get closer to you and failed, each time expecting different results. Thank you for saving me from insanity.

Thank you for sparing me listening to your mixed messages. “I love you! And I miss you!” along with pushing me away. Thank you for finally pushing so hard that I no longer care about sitting through that confusion. Thank you for helping me attain clarity.

Thank you for helping me realize and accept my role in the communication process. Thank you for making me see that I was an enabler; a co-dependent.

Thank you for helping me on the path to Recovery.

Finally, thank you, Alcohol, and your family, Addiction, for making your patterns so patently clear that I can no see them a mile away. And thank you for the pain you’ve caused me so I now steer clear of those patters for I long not to, and I will not, get burned by you again.



This was written about a number of people in my life and no one in particular. If you think I wrote this about you, or this resonates a little to closely, then perhaps you need to check yourself. Maybe you need to find a Meeting in your area.