Hi everyone,
I’d appreciate advice on how to cope.
A year ago I discovered my son had become an alcoholic. Not just drinking too much but apparently drinking until he was almost Comotose. Absolutely unable to move or speak coherently. His wife said he needed half a bottle of vodka just to ‘get going’ in a morning.
We got him into a residential rehab prog. He came out sober and seemed fine. But instead of getting better he relapsed quickly, I felt it was in part because his wife refused to give up drinking in front of him or keep alcohol out of the house. She didn’t see why she should stop and was quite stubborn about her own drinking. I was concerned about her level of alcohol consumption, turning up at my house during the morning smelling of drink and carrying vodka disguised in an orange juice bottle. She drove over to see us, in the car with her three year old daughter. You can see I’m getting uncomfortable with what was going on. I thought she was also an alcoholic as well. I had her down as some kind of ‘enabler’ as far as my sons alcohol problem was concerned. When their marriage ended in spectacular fashion. I finally discovered my sons wife had been a heroin addict most of her life and was still on a high dose of methadone.
I tried to be supportive of her, I didn’t see the methadone itself as anything terrible. But what did bother me was the combination of the drug and vodka (or strong cider when they couldn’t afford anything else). She doesn’t see any of this as a problem and says it doesn’t affect her at all. Is this likely to be correct?