Divorce Support Forums: Post Separation Support

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, so I should begin by providing a little history of my situation.
Four years ago, my husband was prescribed oxycontin for chronic pain. He immediately began abusing this med by taking it in ways that were not prescribed, i.e. snorting it. Within a short period of time, he was totally out-of-control...definately no longer himself, going into rages, staying up all night etc., etc. During this time, he gambled away tens of thousands of dollars which was in a joint account and came from the sale of our previous home. Long story short...this went on for two years, he slept in his own bedroom during this time. He was also very cruel and emotionally/verbally abusive to me. I finally talked him into going to detox which he did. He relapsed once, went into detox again, was clean for a year. He was back to being himself again, moved back into our bedroom. Just as I thought things might get back to normal, he decided to get back on oxycodone, for pain relief he told me. He moved out of the bedroom again, and I walked in on him snorting his med several times. Promised he would stop, did not, constant lies etc., etc. He moved out a month ago into a second home his brother owns. Life was good for him, or so he thought...he had prescriptions for opiates (oxycodone and methadone for pain), was living in a nice home overlooking the mountains, money etc. and no-one looking over his shoulder. He promised he would continue to pay the bills, but in addition to relapsing into his drug addiction, he also relapsed into his gambling addiction. In less than two weeks he gambled away more than $9000.00. Some of this money came from the sale of his truck (marital property?) and the rest came from our bill money. He's on disabilitiy and also receives a pension, approximately $4300.00 each month. This money has always gone into our joint checking account. Last month, he opened a new account, in his name only, made arrangements with social security and his pension board to have his checks deposited into his new account, then gambled it all away. I have no money to pay our bills this month, including our mortgage. We have a large mortgage, because we didn't have much to put down on this home as he had gambled away more than $65,000. from sale of our last home (economic misconduct?) I am planning to file for divorce. What can I do in the meantime to be sure he continues to pay our bills until our divorce is final? His annual income is approximately $52,000. net, and mine is approximately $17,000.00 net. I've worked full time for the past 20 years. Prior to that, I was at home raising our two children. I am sooooooooo stressed out thinking he'll continue to gamble our bill money away and that we'll lose the house. Please help. Thank you.

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