What Would You Do?

Relationships can be fragile things. They definitely require work and a fair amount of compromise. I know of a relationship-buster involving, of all things, Myspace.

The male in the relationship has his bartender (a female) as one of his Myspace friends. Not only as one of his friends, but in his top friends. If you aren't familiar with Myspace, the account holder chooses whom to display on their profile page as their "Top" friends. You can have your "Top 8" or "Top 12" or any number increment of four up to 24.

The relationship between these two individuals is already on shaky ground. They used to live together, but because of his behavior due to his drinking they no longer live together. He has been told by his physician that if he doesn't stop his heavy drinking he will not live another 10 years.

The female, after one too many drunken abusive phone calls, elicited a promise from the male that he would remove the bartender from his Myspace page last Friday. It is now Wednesday. He has been back to the bar Monday night and Tuesday night. The female believes that it is hopeless. She believes that he has not decided to stop drinking and that the bartender is a symbol of his problem with alcohol and his denial of it. She has told me that she wants to keep on believing and she doesn't want the relationship to end because she loves him.

I think if someone really loves someone s/he keeps his/her promises. I think if alcohol is a problem in a relationship, the person with the problem either addresses it and gets help or the relationship is doomed. It is sad. It sucks. But it is also reality. Alcoholism hurts more than the alcoholic.

If you were the couple in question - what would you do?