I'm a married mom and writer who enjoys life and who also enjoys helping others. I give helpful, compassionate and down to earth advice for things that I myself have experienced or learned about.
Gender: Female
Occupation: Writer, artist
Member Since: June 25, 2007
Answers: 9
Last Update: June 30, 2007
Visitors: 2454
Main Categories:
Mental health
Illnesses
Families
View All
|
| |
|
Hey. So for a while now my mom has been drinking alcohol a lot. She has been moody and when she dinks you can tell. She gets all fazed and dosen't understand or react well to things that you say or ask. She knows it is a problem and went to meetings for it but that she just stopped. She hasn't been going. When I was little she was never like this. She rarely ever drank. Now with stress from work and my sister and I she just changed. My sister and I did softball and she came to about 1 to 3 of the games, and made my dad go to the rest or dhe would have another person drive us home. She hasn't been involved in anything that my sister or I do, and now she is even working on my sisters birthday and won't be home all day even though she has that power to ask her boss to have her work another day. When my mom drinks my sister yells at her and is really hard on her which makes her drink more and when I try to confront her i never know what to say and if I do say something her only answer is that shes working on it and that she doesn't want to talk about it. Please help! What should i say? (link)
|
I'm really sorry to hear that your mom and your whole family is going through this. Even though I know this may be hard to do, try to remember that only your mom can make herself stop drinking. I'm sure that your sister is upset and frustrated, as you all must be, but yelling at her won't help the situation. Your mom has to be the one who wants to take that first step and no amount of pressuring will work. You and your family can offer support and compassion but that's about all you can do.
One thing I really want to let you know is that you or the rest of your family are not to blame for your mom's drinking. She's going through her own personal pain right now and you in no way caused her to do this. Drinking and alcoholism can be a family illness, in other words the family can get caught up in the drama and pain of the drinker so it's very important that all of you find some kind of guidance and support. I'd really advise your dad to go to al-anon which is a support group for family and friends of alcoholics. I don't know how old you are but there is also something called ala-teen which is similar to al-anon but is for teenagers.
The website for ala-teen is http://www.al-anon.alateen.org/alameetings.html and if you mouse over the side menu on the website you'll be able to read all sorts of helpful information.
You can also call 1-888-425-2666 to ask about information on meetings near you. It's free of charge and you can call from 8am-6pm Eastern time. By the way, the meetings are also free to attend.
I wish you and your family all the best, take care.
|
|