My son and I and my sister met for lunch the other day. He had been sober for a couple of weeks before that. The weekend before we met, I suspected he wasn’t because he didn’t respond to texts from me. He showed up for lunch and was very shaky- bad. I could smell alcohol on him and he was very teary-eyed and depressed. I just tried to stay upbeat.
I said let’s sit in my car for a bit because he seemed like he needed to talk. He hugged my sister good-bye and was shaking so bad he almost fell over.
He got in my car and instantly said he relapsed and had drank the night before. but that he had nothing to drink since then.
We just calmly talked about what he was going to do to try and get better. He started becoming agitated and had trouble talking and then he went in to a full on seizure in the front seat of my car. It was so scary. I just held him and talked calmly to him. It took him a while to even know where he was. I immediately took him to the ER because it was clear he was not going to be able to detox at home.
I spent the entire day with him at the ER and they kept him overnight. A person with addiction information came in and we talked with him for a very long time. My son did listen and he seemed like he really wants to try something. The addiction person said it’s harder to get in to full time rehab without having tried outpatient rehab first.
It’s been a few days since then. He did look over the materials and even stopped by to see where one of the places was, but as of today he hasn’t moved on anything. It’s so hard. This is the pattern when he gets sober. He gets very depressed and has so much guilt and then… well, we know.
Please pray for him and me too. I thought he was going to die right there in my arms. I hated to see that, but I was on my way to taking him to the bus stop and it might have happened on the bus. I’m feeling so sad at how serious his alcoholism has become and feeling incredibly helpless. I’m seeing him tomorrow because I need to see how he’s doing.