My sister has always had a problem with alcohol.
She can drink eighteen cans a day and any extras along the way including drinking whisky out of a cup.
She drives under the influence too, has been for years and has had a few scrapes and bumps along the way. No one would know she was drunk.
She has lost friends and family have distanced themselves because of the violence and insults.
She has seen an alcohol adviser in the past after being referred to by the doctor. This adviser actually told her she hadn’t got a problem and was wasting her time. This was not helpful as this enabled her to carry on drinking.
She did give up the drink for four weeks earlier this year. Not a drink passed her lips. Then for some unknown reason she decided she wanted a drink. Went to the local shop, bought a bottle of Malibu and downed the lot before her husband returned from work. She forgot to get rid of the evidence. He looked in her bag and found the empty bottle he was devastated and felt let down.
So after years of physical and mental abuse her husband told her to leave. She had to leave behind her son, her dogs and her remaining friends, in fact her life.
This was the turning point. If her husband had left nothing would have changed, she would have still had the comforts of being at home.
She was alone and devastated by what she had done and was doing to everyone. She wanted her husband to support her but he couldn’t any more. She missed her son. Missed her dogs. Missed her life.
I told her the only way she could get her life back was to concentrate on herself. She had to get help for the drink and realise she has a problem.
I sent her to an AA meeting. After the meeting she was devastated, she couldn’t stop the tears falling. All she could say to me was ‘my names …….. I’m an alcoholic’ This was another turning point actually realising it wasn’t just a problem she was an alcoholic and not one drink could now pass her lips. Two days later I went with her to another AA open meeting. She likes this group and has continued to go every week and is doing well. She is now back home and has her life back.
If her husband had not made her leave and I had not made her go to the AA meeting we would not be where we are today.