Hi there, welcome to PC and the addictions forum.

I drank for a long time too - started drinking regularly in my 20's and became a daily drinker in my 30's and finally decided to quit when I was 38. That was 5 years ago. I've been struggling with staying sober ever since then, I've had lots of relapses but I keep trying.

Why'd I'd drink? Simple - to numb out. So I wouldn't have to feel my emotions, because I didn't know how to handle them or how to cope with life. Towards the end I was drinking simply because I literally needed to drink, I was physically dependent upon alcohol to the point that if I went 12 hours without it, I'd start getting physical withdrawl symptoms bad.

You say you think your Dad want's to quit. What makes you say that? If he does that's good, but it can be really scary and it was hard for me to even imagine life without alcohol and I'm younger than your Dad.

If you want to try to talk to him about getting help try to wait until he's sober if he ever is. Suggest that he go to an AA meeting, You'll find AA in the phonebook or you can google it for your city. They most likely will have a central line that you can call where they'll tell you where meetings are. I'd also strongly suggest that you have him talk to his Dr. if he has one about his drinking and help with quitting if he does decide he wants to stop. I don't want to scare you but alcohol withdrawal can be dangerous if someone's been drinking heavily for a long period - I've had 2 withdrawal seizures and came close to having a heart attack / stroke on one withdrawal. I needed medical detox where they give you drugs to reduce the risk - it also by the way makes the withdrawal a lot less painful.

Your Dad might also like to consider getting formal treatment. Some people are able to get / stay sober just using AA alone, and that's great. Some people need treatment. There are lots of treatment options in terms of residential vs day treatment and varying lengths of time. I don't know what country you're in or what your health insurance situation is like, but it's possible that addiction treatment would be covered (it's covered by public health insurance in Canada for example). His Dr. might be able to help with referals there too.

I wish you well in helping your Dad.

splitimage