Hi there malow
Originally Posted by
mallowcup 
My question is this.......Does the amount of caring matter? Can it effect if you drink or not or is this an epitphany that really serves as information?
As an alcoholic, can you not drink if you choose not to?
It's nice to know that people care but does it ultimately matter?
I'll answer this one by taking off my al-anon hat and putting on my alkie hat
When I was drinking there were a _lot_ of people that cared, and that loved me. Those are wonderful feelings, and it felt wonderful to be loved and cared. However, feelings are not actions. As it turned out, the actions of those caring and loving people were enabling me, and did not help me at all.
That's one of the reasons the "disease concept" is so important. All the love and caring in the world will not heal cancer, or mend a broken bone. Getting the appropriate care and following docs directions is what heals and mends. I did not embrace recovery until I ran out of enablers. As long as I could find _one_ poor fool who would believe my BS I continued to drink and party.
My personal opinion is that the greatest act of love is to refuse to assist somebody in hurting themselves, even if it hurts me to do so.
Mike