It is daughter Anouchka who rings the alarm. She misses her father enormously and sees how her mother suffers from his addiction. Tonny and Ray have been together for over thirty years. When their daughter is born, Tonny becomes depressed and it is father Ray who takes full care of the care for two to three years. “I think he also got a huge blow from that,” said Anouchka.
When Ray’s father dies suddenly, he starts to drink more and more. A few years later he also lost his job and lost himself completely in his alcohol consumption. “That has done him so much that if he saw another van from them, or a colleague, I don’t know what he would do. That hatred runs so deep and because of that he has also lost his faith in people”, says Tonny. .
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Nowadays, about 30 cans of beer pass through each day and Anouchka is close to despair. “I am very afraid that he will not make it to five years,” she expresses her fear. “You can’t live a whole day on half a sandwich and for the rest just drink. Nobody can keep that up.” Tonny also sees with sorrow how the love of her life is drowning: “I really have a very sweet husband until about twelve o’clock, then he will start. After five o’clock there is no normal conversation possible.”
It is now or never for Ray, who is extremely calm on the team Addicted responds. “I also know that it didn’t go well,” he says. “There is no stop after the first beer. Then it continues at one pace.” He therefore packs his suitcases with love: “We go for it a thousand percent.”
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That his time in the clinic is good for him becomes clear when presenter Ewout Genemans comes to see him halfway through. “From the moment you dropped me off here, I feel like I belong here. You will be accepted right away, no matter what you look like or what you did.” He now also realizes that he has taken his wife for granted all these years. “Again a very close relationship with my wife, that is quite a goal.”
Since Ray does not have a sponsor at home and does not attend meetings, his family fears the worst. Still, an unexpected drug test shows that he is obeying the rules. Unfortunately, at the end of the episode, it becomes clear that Ray relapsed shortly after shooting. Hopefully he will manage to stay sober in his own way.
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Addicted can be seen every Tuesday at 8.30 pm on RTL 4. Watch the episode with Ray here.
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