You're listening to the Love Over Addiction Podcast.

I'm going to make this quick, I'm going to try and make this quick.

I want to talk about leaving when you love someone struggling with addiction.

I want to talk about how absolutely frustrating it feels when you're trying

absolutely everything you can to get your point across

to the one you love who's struggling with addiction that this cannot go on,

that you have had enough, that you are at your breaking point,

and if things don't change, you can't see yourself with them.

You've tried being nice and patiently communicating all of your feelings and

your needs, just like all those self-help and therapists say, right?

You've been responsible, you've done it nicely, and where does that leave you?

It leaves you with someone who looks you in the eye, agrees with you,

tells you they're going to change, makes promises to you that things will get

better, and then time goes by, and they hurt you again.

So all of a sudden those nice requests, those responsible ways to communicate

seem like they don't work. So then you try harsher ways.

Maybe you're yelling, maybe you're coming unglued, maybe you're trying to make

your case in the kitchen at the table, and you're using giant hand gestures,

but your voice is raised, but not raised too much because then the kids might

hear you in the other room, right? And then they look you in the eye,

and they might say, they might fight back, they might try to blame you,

they might throw the ball back into your court and say,

...