Yes, I would protect myself from a kleptomaniac, and yes, alzheimers patients have violent outbursts sometimes. This is why violent alzheimers patients are kept sedated in institutions. There was one in my grandmother's nursing home who injured 3 other patients. Oh man, the payouts from the lawsuit that resulted kept some of the heirs of those patients happy for years!
But my main point is, people on this board should not feel guilty for NOT supporting an addict in our lives. Choosing to walk away instead is very often the best choice. One participant in this thread wrote the below quote, which implies that those who do walk away are as bad as someone walking away from a cancer patient or a sufferer of heart disease.
"So why should addiction be viewed differently? Why should we act differently, or be considered codependent just because we are in one of these relationships ? Would you research heart disease, look for the best treatments, hospitals, try and make him see how serious this is if he was in denial? What if you found a lump but he kept saying it was nothing would you be codependent to pursue and continue to address your concern? The only difference I can see is with addiction we have to be careful not to enable and prevent the natural negative consequences of addiction to be removed because it helps people become aware of the seriousness, and break their own symptom of denial...."
I disagree entirely, and read these words as codependency run amok. Too many people, especially women, are brought up to be self-sacrificing. In fact, the friends and family boards are full of people who are compromising their own lives while trying to save someone who really doesn't want to be saved. But, unless we're dealing with minor children, we are not obligated to sacrifice our own lives to save other people.