***WARNING: this post is long***

I need to vent...
I just figured out my mom is likely an alcoholic. Here's the story:

My mom is diabetic. She has the worst case. Sometimes, when she knows she needs sugar, she drinks alcohol instead of candy or some kind of sugary food to balance her insulin levels. When she's having an insulin reaction and she's drunk, 75% chance you'll end out needing to call an ambulance because you can't wait for her to not be drunk to take care of the insulin reaction. She might drink too much and have too much sugar in her body, where she needs more insulin. In these cases she is non-stop, won't fall down but she's bumping into walls. Or, her sugar levels will be too low, meaning the insulin is going to start eating away the muscle fibers since theres no food to digest, resulting in eventual spasming. These occasions, where she gets drunk, in my experiences, are rare. The two forms of insulin reactions are less rare, but I only told you about them...because I figured why not.

Now, I have been living at the dorms for about 6 months or so, 20 minutes from my house, and I come home to visit on the weekends. Occasionally I have to help my mom with an insulin reaction, where she'll be out of it. It's very similar to being drunk (without alcohol), with minor differences. Anyway, my mom was acting very wierd tonight, asking me over and over "do you need soap? toothpaste? shampoo? Q-tips?" etc...for about 30-45 minutes while I'm trying to pack the stuff I know I need. This slows me down, and as I was already in afairly bad mood this weekend. I figured I must have been really tired to get as annoyed as I was, and I was having a hard time shrugin it off. I get to the point where I'm like "fine, ok, no, I'm fine," over and over and it becomes a whisper I'm so tired of saying it. Then my mom goes off in a tangent about how "you know I used to be quiet when I was younger but I started talking more when I grew up" I'm totally wigging out here, if anything I thought I'd been talking too loudly the week before, because I'd started a new exercise routine and I had been really tired the whole week, leading up to this night. I didn't know if she was like out of it or I was out of it or what. WHen it came time to move my stuff to my car, my mom gathers my dad and brother-- "alex is leaving, everyone, come and say goodbye!" I'm rolling my eyes, I planned to just take my stuff out to my truck, say goodbye, and leave. But nooo, the whole family is outside with all my stuff putting it in the car, saying "goodbye, cya next week!" I'm like "I'm not leaving for 10 more minutes guys." My mom starts saying "what? oh." My dad tells her to check her bloodsugar because she's acting wierd. I go into my room to burn a CD I wanted to take with me to the dorm.


The bad news:

As I'm burning the CD, I hear my dad and mom arguing, and I hear somethin alone the lines of "Why don't you tell the boys? they need to know." here I am, dead tired, ready to leave, and there appears to be something really serious going on that I may or may not need to know, but I can't really say "what is it?" 10 seconds before I leave. As my CD finished being burned, my dad came in and told me that my mom appears to have a drinking problem. He tells me that he's noticed it getting worse, and he's got to get her on a program or AA or something. We talked about it for a few minutes, I checked to make sure the CD worked in my car CD player, then came back to say goodbye. I knocked on my dad's door, told him I was going, knocked on my mom's door, no answer. I say "i'm going mom" pretty loud, still no answer. My dad opens the door next to me, walks in and says to my mom "alex is leaving, you want to say bye?" My mom appears to be in the bathroom, and I can't see her from the main door. She mumbles something I can't understand, and my dad has a look on his face like "well, fine then" and walks back toward me. Basically that means that she doesn't want to talk. I head out, come back to the dorm, and now the apparent drinking problem is on my mind like crazy...it sucks.

Now what's odd is that my mom is usually the nicest person ever. She'll be overly nice to people, help them with problems or whatever.

...Also, no one really drinks in my family at all. I've always been overly-cautious about it...My dad gave me a few tastes of 'good' wine, once, my brother got caught drinking, once, and my dad hardly drinks at all--only at business meetings or dinners, and never enough to be considered drunk. It's a known fact that alcoholism has been strong on my dad's side of the family.

I just got back from the gym, went for a jog and did a few lifts. I also IM'd my friend about it, he lives here at the dorm. Anyway, this week looks like it's going to be kinda challenging for me. Thoughts? Opinions? I'll take em all plz...

-Veger

[This message has been edited by Veeger (edited February 16, 2004).]

If it makes you feel any better, I know how you feel. My mother is a recovering alcoholic, but she's been sober for at least ten years. I was a little too young to understand what was going on at the time (I'm 18 now), but I knew something was terribly ****ed up. My dad stuck with her and she got help, in her own time...thank god. It was straight up alcoholism, though, so I can't speak to the diabetes and insulin thing. Good luck dealing with it.

By the way - if your mother has a drinking problem, don't drink. I told myself the same thing, but ****, it's ten years after my mother stopped drinking and now I'm picking up the slack.

Sounds like your mom needs some serious help. Drinking while diabetic is a recipe for disaster. If your dad has her in a program, that a good start. Just be as supportive as possible.

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I'm not an actor. I just play one on TV.

my mum used to be an alcy when I was about 4, but she got over it somehow, but she wll always go back to the booze in times of need. Many people are alcoholics, like 10% of the population. But you just have to do what we all do when a family member is in trouble or needs your help, you offer it without fore-thought.

Lets hope she gets better.

if(getThingFlags(source) & 0x8){
  do her}
elseif(getThingFlags(source) & 0x4){
  do other babe}
else{
  do a dude}

My name is Alex too

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.

lol spork

Well thanks for the comments guys, made me feel a little better

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I'm going to go out and do stuff, like besides work. Call up ben, hang out. Maybe see the last samurai, go skydiving, whatever.
Get back into the gym...
I want to do stuff that prevents me from playin video games so I can only play them a few hours a day, basically.
(Formally Veger, who died when he lost his e-mail adress, and his password. Veeger still looks for his old pass...)

Whatever or how ever you feel, she's your mom.
This is obviously not something you can just put on the back burner for something else but you have to do what you need to do in life also. It's a tough one.

If you trust your dad's judgement (and it sounds like you do) just support whatever decision he makes and ask him if he needs help. Talk to him about it too (just because we're parents doesn't mean we have all the answers, as I'm sure you already know. LOL)

I love my mom and it makes me think she can do no wrong even though I know she can and does.

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To artificial life, all reality is virtual.

... Hate to break it to you, but she's still an alcoholic...even alcoholics who have been sober for 20 years are still alcoholics. And..if she still drinks..

Well, heres an update:

I was starting to freak out today, and I couldn't stand not really knowing how bad it was at home. I couldn't find my gym pass and searched my car for it, couldn't find it, was about to call my dad but was still freaking out and decided not to. I started up the engine, left campus, drove around for a bit, pulled over, and called my dad.

Apparently she's had an 'episode' or two (IE a fit), in the last couple days. My dad's going to get her some professional help from the pastor at our church. It looks like the whole thing has likely been going on for a year or so, and my dad is just now realizing it. I told him about my tests today, and he told me about how I'm not going to have to pay any taxes because I'm just under the $4,000 limit for the annual income, which is good news. Kinda lightened the mood. He told me to stop worrying about the whole thing, work on my grades, and he'd take care of it.

I feel a little better now that we've talked. The only major problems are
A: we're going to have to deal with this thing
B: I still can't find my gym pass...searched my dorm and my car.

/update

-Veger

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I'm going to go out and do stuff, like besides work. Call up ben, hang out. Maybe see the last samurai, go skydiving, whatever.
Get back into the gym...
I want to do stuff that prevents me from playin video games so I can only play them a few hours a day, basically.
(Formally Veger, who died when he lost his e-mail adress, and his password. Veeger still looks for his old pass...)