for 30+ years my older brother has been an addict. To drugs or alcohol or both. He can’t hold down a job or a relationship and even his own daughter doens’t want to know him. My mum is in her 70’s and find this so difficult, she is convinced it’s something she did wrong. but I’m not an addict – have never even smoked a joint! Right now my brother is in a mutually abusive relationship. I’ve just paid £3,000 for damage to a private rental property where I was the guarantor – they smashed doors and windows. This week was the last straw for me. At 1.14am his crazy bird rang. i didn’t answer so she rang my mum. My brother had been ranting and shouting for several hours ended up threatening to kill the crazy bird. He staggered out of his flat and disappeared. We now know that he got 200m down a track where he collapsed and spent the night unconscious in a gateway. He had drunk a box of wine, numerous cans and taken loads of tramadol and amyltriptiline – he’s not registered with a Dr so we assume he got these from an alternative source. After 2 days in hospital with hypothermia, we picked him up last night. He was vile and abusive. And has refused any treatment or support from the hospital. I want to have nothing more to do with him because I don’t like him very much at the moment. But he’s my only brother. I buy him food because I don’t want to give him money. But I think now the time has come to let him sink or swim. I won’t buy him any more food but am scared as to what the future holds for him. And for me because all this is making my mum ill.