Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 8/2/2009

Question
My sister is what you call a closet drinker.She is now in a rehab center.She will be there for the next 50 days.Her drinking started in highschool and for the next 20 years she has drank.She has gone through many jobs,loss her driving privileges,can't function a lot of mornings or evenings.I want to give her support but I don't know how I should go by it.I am very angry at her for lying to me about her drinking.What should I do?I can only write her while she is in rehab no phone calls.I need to know what I should write.

Answer
Hi Kim.

A closet drinker is mainly a person who knows he/she is addicted to alcohol, but cannot admit it to people. Alcoholism is a disease in the literal sense of the word, that needs to be treated physiologically before considering any "psychological" issues. If you want to treat or help an alcoholic person, you need to know about the underlying biochemistry of addiction before you can help such a person. Please read:

Why Alcoholics Drink? at
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/WAD.html

Alcoholism (Addiction) is a Treatable Disease at:
http://curezone.com/upload/PDF/Articles/jurplesman/alcoholism_treatable.pdf

Drug Addiction is a Nutritional Disorder at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/drug_addictions_nutritional_disorder.htm...

I hope I have been of  some help.

_______________________________________________
Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist
Hon. Editor of
The Hypoglycemic Health Association of Australia.
www.hypoglycemia.asn.au
Author of "Getting off the Hook"
Freely available at Google Book Search
Skype: jurplesman