Paul D <paul_r_d@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message
news:437ee4af$1_1@news.iprimus.com.au...
> Hi everyone
> My name is Paul and I am 20 years old and from Australia. I am so glad I
> found this group, I now have something to turn to.
> My mother has been an alcoholic for the last three years. When it first
> began she tried taking her life four times, two being overdoses on
sleeping
> pills, the third slashing her wrists, and forth time walking out into on
> coming traffic. All aided by alcohol. This was all happening when I was
> 17-18 and in my final years of high school. Thought times they were. Two
> years later on she is still drinking and we continue to have fights. Her
> father died of a heart attack due to excessive drinking, my aunty has lost
> her entire family because of it, so I don't understand why when she is
> sober, and takes that first sip she doesn't see this. I am glad now I can
> speak- I can voice my inner feelings.
> Hope to hear all your stories and experiences too.
> Paul

You thought about Alanon? It might help you understand the apparent
irrationality of this kind of drinking. If she is alcoholic, she has two
problems. She can't stop drinking once she gets started, and she has this
incredibly illogical inability to stay stopped.
Step one of AA
"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol-that our lives had become
unmanageable"
Powerless over alcohol means precisely and literally that. First an
alcoholic, once he or she takes one drink, an intense craving for more
drinks immediately begins, and we don't stop until we are drunk, run out of
booze, or pass out.
Second, an alcoholic has a mental problem, in that, after sobering up, after
the hangover, it's only a matter of time before the bullshit side of
drinking gets forgotten, and the alcoholic mind only remembers that sense of
ease and comfort a couple of drinks provides, and sooner or later gets to
thinking about taking a drink. Often times, the alcoholic may figure things
will somehow be different "this time". Sooner or later the impulsion to take
a drink burns a hole right through the will power, or blots out any common
sense notion that drinking=problems.
You, on the other hand, seem to tend to view her as someone who is hurting
you, and you can't understand why she would do such a thing. Point is, she
can't help herself, it's not her fault. She is ill with a drinking disorder.
Alanon has some excellent advice to help you deal with her, and how best to
position yourself to do her the most possible good, maybe even helping her
find recovery, you never know.
Being hurt, such that she is aware of your hurt may not be helpful in her
stopping drinking.