This Alcohol Awareness month, a wife shares her experience living with a spouse in recovery.
The effects of alcoholism extend well beyond the addict. GEA employee Katie Wagner knows that too well as the daughter of an addict and wife of a recovering alcoholic and addict. But she also knows there’s hope and help for those who are suffering and for GEA employees, it’s easier than ever to get on the path to recovery.
The physical, mental, and emotional effects of alcohol abuse are devastating, and not just to the person who drinks. Alcoholism also takes its toll on spouses, children, parents, co-workers and others in the addict’s lives.
Katie Wagner, a senior HR business partner at GE Appliances, understands that toll as well as anyone. Her father was an addict who left the family when she was a child. Her first husband was actively addicted to alcohol, culminating in a co-dependent and abusive relationship that Katie knew she had to leave. So, when she asked now-husband Casey Wagner out for a drink 15 years ago, she was disappointed when he texted back that he’d love to go but couldn’t drink because he was in recovery.
“Perfect,” she remembers thinking, “another alcoholic.”
They went out, however, and as the date progressed and Katie learned more about Casey’s story of recovery, she changed her tune.
“I had never met a sober alcoholic before” Katie says of fellow GEA employee and now husband Casey, Senior Manager of Global Sourcing. “I started that evening thinking ‘this is never going to work,’ but as we talked, I saw that he could be in that setting and not drink, I thought ‘this is exactly what I need.’”
These days, Casey is 20 years sober, and the couple is busy with thriving careers and two young daughters. His sobriety is woven into their daily lives.
“It’s still something that I think about because it’s part of his life, it’s part of his world. But it’s something that we have to manage as a couple,” Katie says. “I have to manage my feelings. He has to manage his sobriety.”
While Alcoholics Anonymous meetings were a crucial in Casey’s recovery before, now a huge part is telling his story to others, as he did at a recent Volunteers of America event and in a GEA Connect story. “Sharing his story shows people ‘there’s hope, there’s people like me,’” Katie says. It breaks the stigma for others who are struggling and offers a lifeline for loved ones of addicts to reach out for help.
“People come up to me and tell me their stories,” Katie says. “It’s brought me closer to a co-worker who realized that they were married to an alcoholic.”
As a member of HR, Katie is proud of the resources GEA provides that make it easy for employees and their families to get help.
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers free counseling sessions for people or their family members struggling with addiction. GEA fully covers the costs for a service called Quit Genius that supports people wanting to reduce or eliminate their use of alcohol, opioid, and tobacco products.
Quit Genius is an app and digital clinic with personalized coaching and medical management that is private, confidential, and free to all employees, spouses/partners, and dependents over the age of 18 who are enrolled in a GEA Health Plan. The program can help people achieve whatever goal they seek, whether that’s quitting alcohol completely or just cutting back to a healthier level of consumption.
Katie urges anyone who is struggling with alcohol or other substances, or knows someone who is, to take advantage of the free, easy-to-access, anonymous services GEA offers.
“If you’re struggling, just call the number or click the link,” she says. “People may have no idea where to start, and this is a starting point.”
That is exactly what Michael Wessels, Sales Manager for GEA did! Click here to watch his video.
Quick Links for Help