Hi all, I'm a newcomer. My dad has had a drinking problem all his life. When I was kid he lost his license and finally went to rehab and got better and stayed sober for almost 20 years now.
Unfortunately he's slowly been having relapses the last couple of years.
I'm not sure what got into him to start drinking again. I believe part of it is our neighbors are heavy drinkers and he started hanging out at their house during the weekend and probably gave in to peer pressure (they are probably drunk and telling him, "oh come on have 1 drink" without realizing his past.) When I felt like something was going on I did mention to the neighbor my father was an alcoholic in the past and not to give him anymore drinks because otherwise they are just enabling him.
What was the last straw for me and to seek some help online was yesterday while driving me home from the supermarket he took a beer from under the seat and opened it and started drinking it right there in the car while he was driving in broad daylight!! Then he stopped at a 7-11 to buy a pack of cigarettes. I was just shocked he'd be so stupid to just start drinking in plain site where he could easily get stopped by a cop, get fined, risk losing his license again and who knows what else.
I asked him why doesn't he go back to AA meetings and get some help and his response is he will when he hits rock bottom. He already lost his job 6 months ago due to not getting up one morning to go to work from drinking too much the night before. Since then he's lost a lot of weight and looks terrible because any money he gets he uses it to buy cigarettes and alcohol he's hardly eating and hasn't been sleeping much. It's putting so much stress on the household. Since he's not working he tries to get money from me or my mother, and if that fails he goes to the neighbors to get a drink from them (they are the ones that gave him the beer he drank in the car yesterday). So who knows what he considers rock bottom... getting in an accident, winding up in the hospital?
I'm know I'm the daughter, he's the parent and he can live his life the way he wants. There has to be some options though. It's stressing me and mother out. Plus I'm mad our neighbors keep giving him drinks, they say they our his/our friend but then they don't really seem to care about his well being.
I just wish he'd get some help. Even though I never had a close relationship with my dad it's still sad to see him going down this path again and basically getting himself sick
Sorry this is so long, just trying to put down as much as I can think of in case anyone has any ideas or help resources. Thanks to anyone who read it all.