What can family do to help alcoholic?

My brother has a drinking problem. He is about 51 years old with a wife and two daughters. My brother and I own and operate a small business. We have about a dozen trucks, and my brother does almost all the mechanic work himself. The problem is that he does this work in the evenings while he drinks beer until he can barely form a sentence in conversation. Sometimes he drives while drunk. I try to prevent him from driving when I discover that he is drunk, but I usually don't know when he is drunk.

I had a drinking problem too, so I know it is very hard to quit. What can family members do to help somebody else quit?

Unfortunately, there's not much family can do. You can voice your concerns and do what you can to not enable their drinking. As for the drink driving and working on the mechanics while drunk, that's another story because it's dangerous to others. Imagine if something went terribly wrong on one of your clients vehicles! That is not only dangerous for your clients but your whole business could be in trouble. The drink driving dangers are great, and could result in the death or injury of another, the death or injury of the of the driver or some kind of police involvement. I'm not sure how to go about addressing this kind of behaviour. As you are work partners, is there a way of addressing the drinking while working behaviour?

Thanks, @ThingWithFeathers , when I discovered him yesterday working on trucks while drunk, I reminded him how much trouble it would cause if he got arrested for drunk driving. We talked about the problem until it seemed like he was more sober. I also ordered a breathalyzer and hopefully I can convince him to measure his drunkenness with the breathalyzer before trying to drive anywhere. I also told him that he needs to totally quit drinking instead of hoping to drink moderately. My brother kept talking about drinking less, but I kept telling him he needed to not drink at all. About 15 years ago he quit drinking, but then he lapsed after a few years.

Agreed. Your brother needs to recognize the problem and the family should stop the enabling behaviors. This sounds like disaster waiting to happen.

Step one is admitting you have a problem right? So unless/until he can do that then all you can do is try and talk to him about it. Maybe even a family intervention.

My brother is what you'd call a "functioning alcoholic". He wakes up withdrawing, takes his sips of booze, and goes right to work. And it scares the crap out of me because he goes up on ladders and does drive even without a valid license. He knows and admits he has a problem but won't get help and his excuse is "who's going to run the business?" All I say is "there is no business when you're dead". And the only way he will listen is if he's had quite a bit to drink already. I told him if I can do it, anyone can.

So I guess just offer support and more than anything, please take the keys from him or things will get way worst then they are now! You're putting your business on the line too.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Agreed. My family "intervened" for years and it always drove me further away.