How do you deal with alcoholic family members? My sister is a..I guess recovering drug addict, and that's tough enough with staying home all the time to take care of her son. Now, I've been with my boyfriend 1 1/2 years and gotten close to him and a lot of his family and friends. His mother has been an alcoholic pretty much since he was a young teenager, and so he's been living with his grandmother until his mom just recently begged to live with them after rehab, Now, I'm ALWAYS polite to her and she acts like she likes me perfectly fine. And every time she would nag him or get drunk she used to talk shit about him to make him feel bad and probably to make herself feel better. But now, knowing how close he is to me she has started talking shit about me to him and this makes him absolutely explode with anger. Today I heard him scream at her worse than I ever have before and it actually scared me. I was on the phone with him and Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana came on the radio and I told him because we both like that song. She chose this moment to start in on me, telling him I said something mean about her etc etc. With my sister, I know she hates me and resents my very birth because it meant less attention for her. But I actually wonder if his mother doesn't like me or if she's just trying to push his buttons, because she only does this when she's drunk. This woman is going to be my mother-in-law, so I'll probably be stuck seeing her quite a lot. How do I deal?
I guess I could do that. She refuses to go to AA meetings and she's been to rehab a million times. I think having a sponsor would help her a lot if she actually had the will to quit. She only ever went to rehab when she was losing her apartment and had nowhere to go.
Let her know that your all humans too, let her know that you care about her and when shes drunk you fear for your safety. Depending on her alcoholic status she may take in and hide it with anger, or she may feel like you are threatened by her and she would probably be more agressive. But not knowiing her its hard to make assumptions. Maybe she may be more lenient but I really dont know. Perhaps act incredibly nice to her when shes not drunk, ask her about her day etc. Keep us posted alcoholism is very tough to deal with. Maybe, if your daring Get really drunk with her but make sure your sober enough to deal with emotional or threatening situations. Goodluck I wish the best!
Al-Anon meeting. Go today without delay. Go to more than one or two, and participate. Let the group know you're new and have concerns and questions. Al-Anon ain't perfect but chances are good that you will get interesting feedback from people in your situation.
