happynomad

I think my mother may be heading toward alcoholism and am unsure if I'm overreacting or if the problem is there and needs to be dealt with. She drinks every day and has for many years now. She usually drinks at least 3 beers a night and quite often, on weekends, much more, but can skip nights sometimes. She isn't physically violent but if she has a few too many drinks she can be either confrontational or become overly sensitive and get very upset at the slightest offense. She has become a bit of an annoyance on facebook with what I'm assuming are drunk posts. She has gone "cold turkey" more times than I can count only to find out shortly thereafter that she is back to drinking in the evenings again. She came to stay with me a few years ago when I was due to have my son. She left, very angry, the day he was born and didn't speak to me for almost a year after that because we asked that she not eat or drink in the living room (new carpet), which meant that she couldn't "relax and have a few beers". I've brought up these issues with her before and she gets angry and shuts down. She thinks I overreact because my husband and I don't drink. I have recently started reading about the effects of long term heavy drinking on women and it's scary. I don't want that for her. Does she have a problem? Do I have a problem? I want to resolve this with her, but she's difficult to talk to.