Dealing With a Alcoholic

Self | 09-25-2023 | Captain Peter Blood

[stevio]

Wow, what a great success story. God bless you all.

[Chickensoup]

Sad story

She is very very sick

At this point permanent brain damage is likely

[Chickensoup]

absolutely true

[Chickensoup]

What I have seen in alcoholics including the ones I am dealing with right now is that they are incredibly weak people, the weakest imaginable, child-like impulse self-gratification.

___________

And they LIE.

Spouse hid alcohol abuse and spend down savings.

We almost ended up on streets.

The good people of FR helped me through that rough time.

[Chickensoup]

AA is waiting for you right now.

Call

[CaptainK]

Most of the hard core alcoholics I’ve known drank vodka, which really takes a toll on the body. It’s the devil’s drink.

Tell your friend you love her but you have to step back until decides to get sober. At that point you can step back in to offer support.
.

[Chickensoup]

Wrong.

You can hide alcohol addiction

People hide it all the time. Spouses lie and bathe and shave and stay away. The odor becomes normal for kids and adults.

I have had people tell me that the only way they realized that their beloved was drinking is when a non drunk peer came over and they could finally see the difference.

[Chickensoup]

Alcoholics need to be detoxed.

Not stop cold

it is painful

30% of severe alcoholics who are not detoxed die without alcohol when cold turkey

That doesn’t happen in any other substance

[mosaicwolf]

"I recommend Al-Anon."

I agree with you on ALANON. At first it seemed silly to me but the program changed my life. It put the focus back on me and not the Alcoholic (s) as in dysfunctional family. Many alcoholics. It is quite amazing how others that have been through this nightmare can help you.

[Chickensoup]

Bilirubin is the result of a breakdown of red blood cells

Liver is involved in it.

[vpintheak]

Dang. I’m sure it’s the same thing for my friends wife.

[know.your.why]

You dont at all sound like a real alcoholic. You think that cocaine addiction is the same as alcohol addiction. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions...but dude, you shouldn’t talk about something that you have no personal experience with especially alcohol addiction. And by personal I dont mean a brother or a parent or fillintheblank other person.

[vpintheak]

Oh, he’s not been blind to it. Him and his kids tried convincing her for many years. Their oldest recently got married and they bought a breathalyzer and said the only way she would be allowed to come is if she blew clean.
They’ve been beating their heads against her alcoholic wall. Sad all around.

[know.your.why]

...if you had a parent with a alcohol problem, as a kid, make a vow to never touch the stuff.

What advice do you give the kid who grew up to be the only alcoholic in a Christian family? No one smoked, drank, and rarely cussed. Church every Sunday. One day the eight year old twin brother in the family was given about 3 cups of beer in the bottom of a 40oz bottle by a stranger riding a horse. The boy drinks half of it and is disgusted by the taste and hides it in a planter box. 10 minutes later the kid experiences what he now at 55 years old can only describe as an intense spiritual experience. The sun was brighter. The trees were greener. The sky was bluer. He has become free like a sort of angel and he doesnt know why. He even starts to run home in a feeling of almost ecstasy. At the start of the driveway he plants his foot and stops...and remembers theres still a little bit more of that disgusting liquid in that bottle. And he turns kind of slowly...nervously...and goes back to where he hid it...and drinks the rest of it.

After that experience....the kid only knows that there is some sort of genie in those bottles of liquid that only the grownups are allowed to drink. He has discovered their "secret". And his life goes on...no one the wiser...as he sneaks sips from the grownups glasses when family events are being celebrated.

I'll stop there.

[Captain Peter Blood]

My opinion is with her health situation it’s too late for her to recover, she needs a liver transplant but she will never get one and at Stage 4 Liver cancer I think her time is limited.

[CaptainK]

Even with liver cancer she can still stop drinking. It’s tragic what alcoholics do to themselves and their family and friends.

[Captain Peter Blood]

Evidently she doesn’t really want to. She was given all this news and information a year ago, told me she was going to work hard to get better so she could get on a transplant list. But she never really quit drinking totally and has continued to wreck her health. Her Body Mass Index is about 12, has to be 17 at a minimum for a transplant and you have to be totally alcohol and drug free for 6 months before you can even be considered to put on a transplant list. That is just not going to happen.

[alternatives?]

I am not an alcoholic. I have never had a drink other than a couple of times at communion where I got trapped and I just moistened my lips. I always select non-alcoholic. My point is the first time you take a drink you expose yourself. You are correct, I don’t have any worthwhile advice for someone who has had that first drink.

But I have very worthwhile advice for someone who hasn’t. Don’t. Absolutely nothing good comes from it. Nothing. Disagree?

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I was going about 10 years ago then I moved to an area that’s pretty remote. The nearest one is an hour away but it’s worth it, I’m going to do it and drive there. Thanks

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Thanks I’ll try it. This thread is something I will also be printing out, so many Freepers know people that died from drinking which scares the hell out of me. I can’t even imagine the horror of being told by a doctor “You need a liver transplant or you will die”