Part that is amazing to me is the number of Alcoholics I run across in Alanon, at least in one group near our home -- and many seem to have mental illness issues in their families -- typically mothers.
The folks that come over from AA to Alanon are what some folks call double-winners (or whiners
).
They have more or less Made It to Sober Land in AA, and the real life matters that drove them to drinking need to be worked on and they wind up in Alanon.
But these are seriously adult -- 30 to 60 + year olds still have problems from/about their mentally ill mother(s). They do not tend to describe their mothers as mentally ill, per se, but from the descriptions -- like in this thread -- there is little doubt.