Thursday, May 14, 2015

Self-Care, A New Boundary, and how addicts deceive themselves

Yesterday was disclosure day. B actually did it first thing in the morning which was good (the past two weeks he tried to skip it completely). He had acted out the day before, twice, including masturbating in OUR bed while I was at work. He's done this before. I try to not think about it. Yesterday I hit my limit on that one though. After work I spent $200 and got all new bedding, including a darling eyelet dust ruffle, shams, decorative pillow, the works, and new curtains/rods, and a new large piece of art for the bedroom, frames, etc. Then I came home and was on a mission - pulled out the power drill for the curtain rods, re-did the whole bed, hung the new art, moved some decor around, and it was fabulous! The new stuff is bright and yellow and aqua and sunny and happy. 

Then I told B that I have a new boundary. I am asking him to never view pornography or masturbate in our room, in MY ROOM, because I need my room to be a safe place free of his addiction. If he does act out in any way in our room, he will move out of our room and into the baby's room, who will move in with me. I didn't put a time limit but I made clear it would be dresser and all. My bedroom gets to be a safe place gosh darn it! He didn't put up a fight but he is clearly depressed, and mad at himself because of his acting out. I did not force myself to be supportive and encouraging when he first disclosed. I just thanked him for his honesty and went on my way. I am not taking on his negativity, I got yellow bedding instead!

As I was changing the bedding by myself I found a notebook hidden under the mattress. I don't even think he put two and two together when he saw the new bedding that I MUST have found it. I skimmed it to see if it was what I thought it was. It was a journal, with only two entries. In glancing over them I saw it was much more of the criticism he had leveled at me the other day. I didn't read more than a few sentences but he was fuming, and it was all about how I am screwing up life by applying recovery principles to other aspects of life. For a hot second I was raging. By the time my bed was all made though I was calmed, just another example of how addicts deceive themselves into believing things that aren't true. He's so incapable, or scared, of facing the truth of his life that all of his energy lately is spent focusing on me and what he deems to be my mistakes that are causing "damage" to me and to us. HA. 

Watch out mr. addict man. This woman has new happy sheets and you are not about to ruin them with your nasty addiction - and pretty soon that confidence will spill over into other rooms in our home and you'll be fresh out of places to act out without severe consequences! Addict B is so stupid and selfish. Non-addict mode B is awesome. Too bad he can't separate them, because kicking addict B out of our room will also kick the other one out. Hopefully it doesn't come to that but I'm 98.62% sure it will, just a matter of time.

5 comments:

  1. I love this! Your bedroom should definitely be a safe place where you don't have to think about or wonder about any of that crud. Good luck, and enjoy your new bed set!

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  2. I am having to do this too. My husband just admitted to me yesterday that he had acted out with masturbation a few days ago. I haven't really had to set boundaries with him as he had a full year of sobriety. And then, it all started to fall apart. So, today I am setting up my boundaries and one of them is that if he acts out and lies about it, he goes to his mom's house to sleep. (That should be deterrent enough!) Thanks for the post. Nice to know I 'm not alone.

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  3. I am having to do this too. My husband just admitted to me yesterday that he had acted out with masturbation a few days ago. I haven't really had to set boundaries with him as he had a full year of sobriety. And then, it all started to fall apart. So, today I am setting up my boundaries and one of them is that if he acts out and lies about it, he goes to his mom's house to sleep. (That should be deterrent enough!) Thanks for the post. Nice to know I 'm not alone.

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  4. This post makes me feel powerful. Your husband is going to remember how expensive acting out is and change. :-)
    Way to be in charge of your space and safety.

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  5. I finally realized that my continuing to stay in our bed with my husband was only letting the addict believe that I was ok with what he was doing. In January my husband decided that he needed a 'safe' outlet, a hole in the internet filter to keep him from escalating further. At that moment I realized that I couldn't sleep in the same room as him if he was going to have any access at all to porn. His 'security blanket' was too much to deal with. So I moved out and into the other room. The boundary was 30 days sober. It's been 5 months. I'm taking bets that it's going to be at least 5 more. Good for you taking back your space and your house!

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