Hello growlove, Welcome to SR!
It's so sad when someone we love is so self destructive and know there is nothing we can really do to help them. The person who sent me looking for help on the internet one night is my stepson. So I do not have any personal experience with a parent to share, but I can share with you one very important concept, the 3C's:
I did not cause the addiction.
I cannot control the addict.
I cannot cure the addict.
Equally freeing and frustrating concept to think about at first. Essentially what it means is that you cannot make your mother get help for herself. The very sad truth is that no amount of begging, pleading, threating, or coercion is going to make her stop drinking or abusing pain medicine. Sobriety is something she will have to want more than anything else, and she will have to do the work to get there.
AA might be useful for her or counseling, too. There are many paths to recovery. But even if you were in the same state, you could not make her go to meetings or appointments, I'm sorry to say.
I can tell you that we can be happy again regardless of whether or not our loved one's are drinking. I hope you will stick around and read all you can. There is some really wonderful, basic information contained in the "stickies" at the top of the forum. Please make yourself at home here. You are among people who completely understand.
HG