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Originally Posted by BirdDancer
My brother visited me today. The main concern my siblings and I have is my dad. We all agree he needs to be in the hospital (dual diagnosis wing, preferably one for the elderly). Bro said "Dad probably has bipolar disorder". I was like "Well, Sis and I have known this for ages". We obviously didn't know as kids or young adults. We didn't know that a few of us had it. Total lack of insight when so many in a household have major issues.
Dad tells us he is "an alcoholic". Bro thinks he is. But I think he's bipolar self-medicating. That's what I was. How can a person who's only started drinking problematically at 70 years old be an alcoholic? Though his mental health has been in question off and on since he was 16?
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That does seem unusual. Usually alcoholic issues begin early if there’s a prob. I used to have to go to Alateen meetings for kids of alcoholics but was always really confused because I never saw my dad drunk and I saw him drink a couple of beers and stop. I learned years later that he was actually not addicted to akcahol but to pain killers and he used heroin before we were born and struggled using pain killers sorta as a replacement addiction. I didn’t know this until recently. It is highly possible your dad in his 70’s has struggled his whole life with addiction alcohol or otherwise and is just now not able to hide it in his 70’s. But bipolar and addiction do often go hand in hand. Sorry your having such s hard time I’m sure the three of you will come up with a plan.