Alcohol dependence

I have a friend back at home who I'm getting really worried about - she's drinking herself into a stupor almost every night, alone, on neat vodka. She's also on anti-depressants which I'm pretty sure isn't a good mix.

The fact that she's drinking so much, alone, regularly, is making me think she might genuinely have an alcohol dependence problem. She says she drinks to forget about the bad things in her life.

Her dad doesn't know about the drinking - she hides it from him. I'm going down to see her this weekend so I'm going to try to talk to her then, but does anyone have any ideas of what I can say to help? Or any ideas how you'd deal with a similar situation? I'm really worried about her :frown:

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

tbm

You could suggest that she speaks to someone at a specialist service that deals with alcohol- but she may not be willing to. If she doesnt want to then theres not much you can do about it, it has to be her choice.

Has she admitted to you that she has a problem? It might be that she hasnt realised she has. Just tell her you are worried about her and assure her that you'll be there for her if she needs support. Is there a particular incident that has triggered her drinking? If there is, she might want to think about getting support for that and facing the problem head-on. Mixing the alcohol with antidepressants does not seem like a good idea so perhaps point this out to her and tell her what possible danger she might be putting herself in.

Reply 2

Indus1986

This is a tricky one, people always tell you to approach this issue sensitively. Bring up the topic gently and tell her not only how it is affecting her but affecting you (causing you to worry etc).

If you can try and take her down to one of those temporary homless shelters or rehab clinics, the stories they tell you can scare anyone out of drinking.

Don't go in to the issue aggressively, because she will react in the same way and things can get very heated.

One thing you could try asking her is the CAGE questionnaire (google it), ask her the questions and note down what score she gets.