my teenage son is an alcoholic

[ineedhope]

my seventeen year old son has been drinking a great deal. He's not going to school and he wrecked his sisters car this w/e. My husband went to help with car and he was so drunk he could hardly stand and he was calling his father bad names. My husband ran after him and told him he was no longer welcome in our house. This behavior has been going on for about 6 months. What can I do?

[MarkSichelCSW]

Your best option is to go to Al Anon where you can get help and support from others who are dealing with this kind of problem....more than help and support, courage and wisdom and hope. Please give the program a chance...its truly the best way to help your whole family.

[sociopathalso]

You know if your son had any other illness, say highblood pressure, or we wouldn't say he is a highbloodpressurist.We wouldn't define him by his condition in that case and I often wonder why poeple find it so easy to define people by their condition when it comes to alcohol or chemical addiction. I guess that what I am trying to say is that when you look at the situation as your son being a person dealing with and living with suffering with a condition, then there seems to be hope.If you realize that he's a person fighting a disease then it's possible to look at the situation as him needing the tools to fight the good fight, and then you can formulate a plan. You can figure out what tools he's going to need to wage this fight, and you an seek out others who have fought and won.I have an extremely large family and many addicts within it and I find that it's easier to remember that living within that addiction, no matter what it is the person that we love.

It is so easy to lose ourselves in the battle, but when we speak we can just remember that somewhere within the illness is a person not just an addiction