Originally Posted by bluedog97

How do you deal with others who may deny your problem with alcohol. Maybe they're not aware of your struggles. Or maybe they have their own hang ups about it. Personally, I would never doubt someone's claim they're an alcoholic. How you run across anyone like this and how did/would you handle it?

I'll give a personal experience I had recently. I've posted about my last bender that put me in the ER/hospital for 5 days. I had poor kidneys and liver and was dehydrated. I had a family member recently tell me it had nothing to do with alcohol. This person even visited me in the hospital and saw me in that condition. I was wondering, what kind of denial is this? I sort of feel like I would if I had cancer and someone denied it. Needless to say it bothered me. This is someone I need to cut out of my life.

Thanks

Originally Posted by MissPerfumado

This is a very good thread, thank you for posing the question. Only two people in my family of origin really get that I'm an alcoholic: my father, because he's one too and my mother, who had to live being married to an alcoholic. My siblings have varying degrees of acceptance but I sense their discomfort in identifying me with Dad, who according to our family narrative was an ogre when we grew up. There are lots of complicated issues around why people don't want to accept that a loved one is an alcoholic - in my case, my family respects my choices and I don't call out their discomfort. I don't mean to sound dismissive but this really is about me and not them.