What would you do if she drank a 26er a day??
I think it’s fair to say that each of us will face numerous tests in our lifetime. For some they are pure frustration like bumps on life’s road and for others we wonder if it’s God looking down and waiting to see if our choice will be the one he/she wants.
I’ve faced my fair share of them and for years now one in particular keeps rearing it’s head. The family discusses it often but the discussions of “what to do” and “who will do it” have subsided for now - we are simply afraid.
You see a member of our large family is an alcoholic - let’s give said person a name for the sake of ease here - we’ll call him Ed. Now, Ed doesn’t just drink three glasses of wine daily or a lot of beer daily, Ed powers back a 26 ounce bottle of liquor daily - yes, daily - and has done so for SEVERAL years.
Truly his liver is a testament to what a liver can take. I have no idea how his body copes and yet it does and still he is here with us - for which i am grateful because, you see, Ed is a great, warm, caring part of our family and very, very much loved.
This love is what has brought about the conversations - always hushed and somehow frantic even though nothing ever comes of them - about what to DO about “the drinking” which is surely going to kill him (though he is already in his 60’s and has been at this for 20+ years) or worse, badly incapacitate him.
Maybe there are too many parties trying to figure things out.
1) Some think he should just stop cold turkey (which from what I have read, could very likely kill him). He has admitted that he drinks too much so it seems that he KNOWS what he is doing to himself… and he can afford treatment if he desires it.
2) Others are bitter and can’t get past the “his drinking is making MY life crappy” song so they really can’t help anyway.
3) Others can’t agree on WHO should talk to him (though my camp is all for everyone coming together with notes of love etc.)
4) And others of us are just afraid to approach him about it. WHY? Let’s just say, if past actions predict future ones, there’d be Hell to pay for any kind of criticism - no matter how loving or how much we told him he has a “disease and the addiction is not something that he can control”.
But with so many people deciding, no one can decide 
So what can we do? At last discussion we had decided to look up treatment facilities and mull it over. Truly I think that our fear of talking to him will prevent the discussion but I’ll hold out hope 
In the meantime, I found a great site online - www.1800nodrugs.com - that is a non-profit, free drug rehab referral service. It has lots of info and can help in finding a long or short term facility that’s appropriate (no charge for the referral either which is nice). Maybe this will help us, if the group can ever decide on what to do… and really, if he’s already admitted that he drinks too much, do we need to step in???
I wish I knew the choice that God is looking for me to take
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