Last Question First: Whatever you can to help your brother. That is what you are SUPPOSED to do.
But as ever there is a mahooooosive HOWEVER cos everything has a cost. EVERY time you try and fail you pay a price for that, emotionally/psychologically like.
is my experience, that is.
my father is a functioning alcoholic. that has always seemed a somewhat inadequate label to me. i now realise (3 1/2 years of group therapy helped) the price i paid with every confrontation over his drinking. he's a big fella but a few years ago he realised that i am now bigger. things changed then but the drinking hasn't stopped.
i see too the price my mother has paid. there can be no question that the constant "stresses" (if we can call them that?) have played a major part in her decline. at the age of 71 conversation is rarely coherent and she can't even wipe her own arse anymore. and that's on a good day.
there's a lot more i could say but this is neither the time or the place.

the question that i suggest you need to ask yourself is not how much you love your brother but much you love yourself.
alcoholics are damaging people to be around.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Tue 29 Dec 2009, 14:33, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

He's fine to be around
He's just a mess. He's not the angry type, this situation started as teenage social dutch courage and is now just an emotional prop.

Without drink he wouldn't know what to do with himself. I know the feeling, to be honest.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 29 Dec 2009, 14:47, Reply)

wasn't suggesting he's the angry type, i got the feeling from what you said that he's not like that.
but alcoholics are damaging to be around. it's a war of attrition.
i couldn't claim to really know the situation, it's further blurred by him being yer bro.
i guess it's easier to not be around to see the decline and fall, as many choose to do.
i'm rambling cos i'm stoned now.
over and out.
( blaireau69 , the Cumbrian Travis Bickle., Tue 29 Dec 2009, 16:25, Reply)

Thanks for the advice mate.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 29 Dec 2009, 16:43, Reply)

problem relatives
I know the feeling........
(Purpledoris I've got afeckin' job, Tue 29 Dec 2009, 18:40, Reply)