My dad drinks and is unwell?

Question

my dada has drank everyday since and before i was born,he has now in the last 6years lost weight,not able to eat certain foods without it upsetting his digestive system,whatever problem he has it has changed his appetite,his main symptom is that he always used to suffer heartburn and now also plus i think indigestion,but mainly its that he eats and at no particular point he gets really bad hiccups and brings up his food,or sometimes may take a first or second mouthful and brings its back up,of course because of this going on for a long time he has lost weight,but i am worried it may be another problem cause sometimes with certain things your body is not absorbing foods properly,also worry about what the exact problem may be that has caused him to lose weight,may i add that this does not happen all the time,although there does seem to have been times where he has a spate of it then it goes away,alcohol definatly worsens it if it has not caused it,he doesn't want to go to the doctors and carries on as he is,not only has his drinking always affected all of us and our relationships with him,and his role in our life,also now his ill health is affecting me greatly,i know to worry and nothing is changing anyway is not helping me,but i feel affected by this nearly everyday,and also think its wrong to sit and do nothing,although nothing is changing,any comments would be appreciated

Answer 1

Alcoholism is a disease.

t is not always how much you drink or how often that puts you in the category.

My father was an alcoholic. He learned to drink with the best, the Marines! It got to a point where it was devastating to us and him as well. We as a family put our foot down and drove him to an Outpatient Rehabilitation Center. Humbled a bit he accepted the help and did well. He even went to work in a Young Adult Alcohol Rehab Unit for a year afterwards. The kid's loved him and looked up to him because he was a retired Marine and he was not too proud to admit to them his faults. The sad part of this is that my mother never let him live it down and at home he was what you call a "dry drunk". He never drank again even if there were times he wished he could have.

If the concern is there in you then it should be a concern with your mother and she is the one that needs to step up and let him know her limitations with it and try to get him to seek help.

You can get in with an Al-Anon Group n your area and learn more about how to deal with this. There are good ones and bad ones, big picky about it. When we as a family went I stopped going because all they wanted to do was talk about the bad things their family member did drinking. Nothing positive was ever mentioned about the fact they were making their life better for being a part of rehab. I chose to look forward and not backwards. I wish my mother had done the same.

Alcoholism is a disease and you get to a point that it is not so much a choice of the one drinking it is something their body craves and the crave overtakes what is right or wrong. They loose control, just like smoking.

Again, work together as a family. Instead of confronting your father at this point confront your mother and other siblings that may be too use to living with it and dealing with it only to wake up the next day and deal again. There has to be a stopping point and it will either be his health that does it or a fmaily that cares enough to not live around it.