Expert: Jurriaan Plesman, Nutritional Psychotherapist - 8/23/2009

Question
Last year my father died from an alcohol related illness. My best friend of 20 years also had a major alcohol problem which he refused to face. Recently I refused to lend him some money, and he basically ditched me...
Anyway, it seems I tend to attract or be attracted to alcoholic friends. A friend Ive known for about 2 years has always been a drinker. However, I thought her drinking would decrease if she began working, so I got her a job. Unfortunately, in the first week, a co worker came up to me and asked me about her drinking habits. He could smell the alcohol on her. This incident got me thinking about her alcohol dependence. I began to notice that she drinks alone every night, finds it difficult to work a 5 day week, and often tells stories about how she passed out in the house and couldnt remember how she got there. Once she went out and wasnt sure if she was raped because she was so out of it on drugs and alcohol. She's 39 years old. Ive decided to dissociate myself from this person because I couldnt handle going through the whole alcoholic thing again. But this has hurt her feelings and isolated me socially from my other friends who dont think anything is wrong. My question is, Im not sure whether I am seeing alcohol problems everywhere because of my father and first friend, or whether I am just more aware of alcoholism than other people? Im Australian and alcohol is part of out culture, and I feel like Im becoming a wowser. Perhaps I am wrong about this friend and over reacting.. Im not sure what to do...

Answer
Hi Lee,

You are not wowser. Perhaps because you had an alcoholic father, you may be somewhat more sympathetic to alcoholics than people who simply avoid alcoholics altogether.

If you want to help alcoholics it is necessary to understand what makes an alcoholic. Why some people become alcoholic and others not. I have explained this in my articles:

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

What is Hypoglycemia at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/what_is_hypo.html

The Serotonin Connection at:
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au/articles/serotonin_connection.html

You can not help an alcoholic if they do not want to get better. But if hey are motivated to overcome their addiction, they could do so by reading articles at our web site.

_______________________________________________
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