Drunks in the family - Page 2

sara1998 · #16 12-30-2005, 10:58 PM

My grandfather, who passed this past June, was a bad alcoholic. I swear, before lung cancer and chemo, he drank a case of Old Milwakee a day. He drank a cup of coffee in the morning, and half a glass of milk with dinner, and was beer all the way through. Once he went through chemo, his tastes changed, and he couldn't stomach beer anymore, so he drank vodka and orange juice. Went through a fifth a day. We burried him with a fifth of the ****, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter.

My uncle, his son, is currently serving time in jail for mulitple DUI's. He's a pretty bad alcoholic, and refuses to quit. I don't really drink too much. I had a few last night, and I'll have a few more tomorrow, but most of my experiences with drinking are pretty negative....

Mad4stevie · #17 12-31-2005, 12:34 AM

My grandfather died from his alcoholism. When I was only 3 months old. My mother grew up demonizing alcohol because she used to have to deal with her drunk ass father and put him to bed, etc. all the time. It is so very true that alcoholism is a generational disease. Its effects are felt down the line.

My live-in boyfriend is a recovering alcoholic. It was really bad before he went to rehab and started doing the AA thing. At the end, he was going through a fifth a day of vodka. No one should ever live like that, and if he was not in recovery, I could not put myself through anything like that again. His family is full of drunks (mom, dad, sister, brother . . .). He was also diagnosed with bipolar illness, which makes it even harder to stay sober due to the desire to self-medicate when manic or depressed.

Alcoholism is a very painful thing.

ragandbone · #18 12-31-2005, 04:17 AM

My father was an alcoholic, and although he had many alcohol-related ailments, he died of an aneurism. He was in a rehab center in the 70's, and went through the AA program several times, but it wasn't until he got stomach cancer that he had to quit. He claimed that his father was also an alcoholic, but one of his daughters from a previous marriage claims this is not true. His son from that marriage died in a car accident, and he was drunk.

My mother could never drink at all, and she told me that my her father got terrible headaches from drinking. We have migraines in our family(I take Imitrex) and my mother was addicted to painkillers in the 70's - also went to a rehab.

I worked in bars for years, and used to have one or two drinks a night while I was working. I had only one hangover in my life until my late twenties, and then I found that I was unable to drink without getting quite sick. I don't know if this the same sort of alcohol allergy my grandfather had, or the result of overtaxed kidneys from other substances during my party days. I almost never drink anymore, it just isn't fun any longer.

New Years confession over.

jannieC · #19 12-31-2005, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ragandbone

My father was an alcoholic, and although he had many alcohol-related ailments, he died of an aneurism.

My dad was a "functioning" alcoholic. Meaning, I never knew he was an alcoholic, until my sister told me. He died when I was 17 years old from an aneurism, too.

Alcoholism, drug addiction, etc. SUCKS. It ruins people. The soup kitchen I work in is filled with homeless people, and I can honestly say that 90% (if not more) are addicts of some kind. One guy that comes in has his Master's Degree in Physics (I think it's Physics...something like that). Anyway, he's homeless and an alcoholic. So f*cking sad.

sara1998 · #20 12-31-2005, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

My live-in boyfriend is a recovering alcoholic. It was really bad before he went to rehab and started doing the AA thing. At the end, he was going through a fifth a day of vodka. No one should ever live like that, and if he was not in recovery, I could not put myself through anything like that again. His family is full of drunks (mom, dad, sister, brother . . .). He was also diagnosed with bipolar illness, which makes it even harder to stay sober due to the desire to self-medicate when manic or depressed.

Alcoholism is a very painful thing.

Good luck with him. My late hubby went to rehab, but refused AA, and ultimately relapsed, and killed himself later that day. I'll never deal with another alcoholic again.

jannieC · #21 12-31-2005, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sara1998

Good luck with him. My late hubby went to rehab, but refused AA, and ultimately relapsed, and killed himself later that day. I'll never deal with another alcoholic again.

God, I didn't realize your husband killed himself. I'm so sorry!!!!!

Mad4stevie · #22 12-31-2005, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sara1998

Good luck with him. My late hubby went to rehab, but refused AA, and ultimately relapsed, and killed himself later that day. I'll never deal with another alcoholic again.

I am so sorry for your loss.

Unfortunately, the rehab center did not medicate him for his bipolar and only treated the alcohol addiction. As a result, he was still manic when he was released from rehab. He fell off the wagon about three weeks ago, and became suicidal. I had to file a petition for involuntary commitment to the hospital. When he got there, his BAC was .30, which is pretty high. The psychiatrist commited him for 5 days to get him stabilized on bipolar meds (FINALLY!!). Now that he is on his meds, he is not suicidal, but is still depressed because the meds take a while to take full effect. He is not drinking, is going to his doctor appointments and is going to AA.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to get him to the hospital, although it was a very scary thing to have to call the crisis line and 911 because he was suicidal.

sara1998 · #23 01-01-2006, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

I am so sorry for your loss.

It's ok. Sorry. Didn't mean to kill the thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

Unfortunately, the rehab center did not medicate him for his bipolar and only treated the alcohol addiction. As a result, he was still manic when he was released from rehab. He fell off the wagon about three weeks ago, and became suicidal. I had to file a petition for involuntary commitment to the hospital.

Same with my case. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to admit him. It was over just that quick.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

When he got there, his BAC was .30, which is pretty high. The psychiatrist commited him for 5 days to get him stabilized on bipolar meds (FINALLY!!). Now that he is on his meds, he is not suicidal, but is still depressed because the meds take a while to take full effect. He is not drinking, is going to his doctor appointments and is going to AA.

It's a good start. It will surely be a long road. I hope he is able to see that this will take time, and going to meetings and taking meds will eventually pay off .

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad4stevie

I am glad that I had the opportunity to get him to the hospital, although it was a very scary thing to have to call the crisis line and 911 because he was suicidal.

I'm glad you had the opportunity, also. I really wish you luck with him. He's going to need you. I'm sending out my prayers and good wishes to you both.

Janet · #24 01-01-2006, 03:36 PM

LOL!

Let's see. My dad's mother died of alcoholism. I never met her. My dad then died of a drug overdose.

My mom's father died from complications of alcoholism and she too battles addiction as does her sister ( my aunt) who is known to drink early in the morning before work and after and in between.

My brother and I can put it down pretty good but do you blame us? It's kind of in our blood!

Seriously...I can go a couple days without a drink...really...I can.

SERIOUSLY...I'm not making light of it...it's a serious problem but I lighten it because if I took it all too seriously I'd be a mess right now.

Janet · #25 01-01-2006, 03:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sara1998

Good luck with him. My late hubby went to rehab, but refused AA, and ultimately relapsed, and killed himself later that day. I'll never deal with another alcoholic again.

I'm REALLY sorry.

Jen77 · #26 01-01-2006, 10:14 PM

My dad is an alcoholic. Although he will not admit that he has a problem. My parents divorced earlier this year because of all this. We tried to help him but there's really nothing you can do when he can't admit there is a problem or want to help himself. Its really a sad situation.

CelticGypsy · #27 01-03-2006, 10:48 PM

Funny story (but not at the time) about my daughter who flew in from NC and she had a 6 hr layover in Seattle a few days before Christmas. Her dad and I went to pick her up at the airport. She wasn't with the other passengers that were coming down the hallway. So about 10 mins later, we decided to go check to see if her suitcases had arrived. They were there but still no daughter

So hubby picks up her bags and comes back to where I am waiting at the gate in case she shows up. We call her cell phone and she is in the bathroom sick from drinking too much

She was eating lunch in a Seattle airport restaurant with a group of people she had met who also were waiting for their plane to leave and apparently they all had too much to drink during that six hours

It was good to see her safe but she slept most of the two hour ride back to our house and slept most of the next day too

Hope next time she comes home for a visit she will remember how crappy she felt and how embarrassed she felt afterwards. She told us she was glad we were easy going parents