10th November 2007
'm going to attempt to describe this situation as well as I can, it's complicated and I'm bound to leave out many important details but here it goes.
My dad has been an alcoholic for 12+ years. He's 54 years old and he's overweight.
About 8 years ago he had open heart surgery (6 way bypass). Sometime after that he became depressed and started having panic/anxiety attacks, which I understand is fairly common after a major surgery. He wound up being put on and taken off off several medications for depression, bi-polar disorder and seizures. He was given Xanax (among other drugs) by a Psychiatrist about two years ago which he became addicted to. He stopped taking the Xanax about a year ago and had (or claimed) withdrawals for a year afterward which caused even more severe anxiety.
While on all of these drugs he was drinking heavily.
About four years ago he retired and has since done practically nothing but sit in his basement, drink beer, smoke cigarettes and watch t.v.
Over the past year or two he has gotten worse. He gets much more drunk or appears much more drunk from far less alcohol than it would have taken four year ago.
He started falling randomly and convulsing even when he's not drunk. He was tested and had whatever scans would be standard when something like that happens and they found nothing wrong.
He has lost control of his bowels several times that I know of and many others I don't, once walking to the store to buy more beer a block away from out house. The neighbor complained.
He wakes in the middle of the night and sits in his kitchen and eats huge quantities of food and he isn't aware he had done it the next day.
Sometimes he will not remember things he did hours ago and once a week he will talk about something that never happened.
In the past three weeks my mom realized he has stolen all of her jewelry (Including her first wedding ring from him and his wedding ring) and pawned it to buy beer. He stole my kid sisters change jar, he pawned many of his tools, etc. This was completely beyond what I ever thought he was capable of doing.
In the morning when he hasn't had anything to drink he is usually fairly lucid and if you try to discuss how he feels, or what he has done he skirts around it or stays silent and it's incredibly frustrating and sad.
He has been to rehab three times in the past year and a half and each time came home and went to buy beer the same day.
He isn't verbally or physically abusive.
I could give hundreds of other accounts of of things he has done but I think I have probably gotten that point across.
The reason I'm writing this is because my mom has finally decided to divorce him. He plans on living in their cottage about 250 miles away. If he moves there alone I can't help but think he will be dead with a year or two. He will drink himself to death or crash his truck and maybe kill someone else in the process. (My mother took his keys and refused to give them back several months ago after she got home from work and found him drunk backing his truck into my car repeatedly trying to go buy beer.)
Today he said he wasn't feeling well and tonight he didn't drink or smoke all night (HIGHLY unusual). Then he said he was "seeing ribbons", hallucinating, and he was laughing and smiling but actually acting rather normal otherwise. It was bizarre. My mom took his blood pressure and it was high earlier and them back to normal later, she wanted to take him to the emergency room but he refused.
Here is a last of the drugs he is currently prescribed:
This first one I think was recent:
Benzopine MES 1Mg (Take one, twice daily as needed, substitute for Cogentin)
Gabapentin 300MG capsule TEV (Take two, three times daily)
Geodon 80MG capslue ROE (Take one, three times daily)
Seroquel 100MG tablet ZEN (Take one in morning and one at night)
Simvastian 20MG tablet TEV (Take one tablet at bed time)
Sertraline HCL 100MG tablet TEV (Take one tablet, twice a day, substituted for Zoloft)
Carvedilol 25MG tablet MYL (Take one tablet, twice daily)
Lisinopril 20MG tablet SAN (Take one a day)
Vytorin 10/20 tablet M/S (Take one a day)
Plavax 75 MG tablet BRI (Take one a day)
Cozaar 50MG tablet MSD (Take one a day)
Zetia 10 MG tablet M/S (Take one a bed time)
He also takes aspirin everyday.
And drinks.
His doctors know he's an alcoholic.
I'm begging for professional help here, suggestions, advice, anything.
Thank you,
Joe
My dad has been an alcoholic for 12+ years. He's 54 years old and he's overweight.
About 8 years ago he had open heart surgery (6 way bypass). Sometime after that he became depressed and started having panic/anxiety attacks, which I understand is fairly common after a major surgery. He wound up being put on and taken off off several medications for depression, bi-polar disorder and seizures. He was given Xanax (among other drugs) by a Psychiatrist about two years ago which he became addicted to. He stopped taking the Xanax about a year ago and had (or claimed) withdrawals for a year afterward which caused even more severe anxiety.
While on all of these drugs he was drinking heavily.
About four years ago he retired and has since done practically nothing but sit in his basement, drink beer, smoke cigarettes and watch t.v.
Over the past year or two he has gotten worse. He gets much more drunk or appears much more drunk from far less alcohol than it would have taken four year ago.
He started falling randomly and convulsing even when he's not drunk. He was tested and had whatever scans would be standard when something like that happens and they found nothing wrong.
He has lost control of his bowels several times that I know of and many others I don't, once walking to the store to buy more beer a block away from out house. The neighbor complained.
He wakes in the middle of the night and sits in his kitchen and eats huge quantities of food and he isn't aware he had done it the next day.
Sometimes he will not remember things he did hours ago and once a week he will talk about something that never happened.
In the past three weeks my mom realized he has stolen all of her jewelry (Including her first wedding ring from him and his wedding ring) and pawned it to buy beer. He stole my kid sisters change jar, he pawned many of his tools, etc. This was completely beyond what I ever thought he was capable of doing.
In the morning when he hasn't had anything to drink he is usually fairly lucid and if you try to discuss how he feels, or what he has done he skirts around it or stays silent and it's incredibly frustrating and sad.
He has been to rehab three times in the past year and a half and each time came home and went to buy beer the same day.
He isn't verbally or physically abusive.
I could give hundreds of other accounts of of things he has done but I think I have probably gotten that point across.
The reason I'm writing this is because my mom has finally decided to divorce him. He plans on living in their cottage about 250 miles away. If he moves there alone I can't help but think he will be dead with a year or two. He will drink himself to death or crash his truck and maybe kill someone else in the process. (My mother took his keys and refused to give them back several months ago after she got home from work and found him drunk backing his truck into my car repeatedly trying to go buy beer.)
Today he said he wasn't feeling well and tonight he didn't drink or smoke all night (HIGHLY unusual). Then he said he was "seeing ribbons", hallucinating, and he was laughing and smiling but actually acting rather normal otherwise. It was bizarre. My mom took his blood pressure and it was high earlier and them back to normal later, she wanted to take him to the emergency room but he refused.
Here is a last of the drugs he is currently prescribed:
This first one I think was recent:
Benzopine MES 1Mg (Take one, twice daily as needed, substitute for Cogentin)
Gabapentin 300MG capsule TEV (Take two, three times daily)
Geodon 80MG capslue ROE (Take one, three times daily)
Seroquel 100MG tablet ZEN (Take one in morning and one at night)
Simvastian 20MG tablet TEV (Take one tablet at bed time)
Sertraline HCL 100MG tablet TEV (Take one tablet, twice a day, substituted for Zoloft)
Carvedilol 25MG tablet MYL (Take one tablet, twice daily)
Lisinopril 20MG tablet SAN (Take one a day)
Vytorin 10/20 tablet M/S (Take one a day)
Plavax 75 MG tablet BRI (Take one a day)
Cozaar 50MG tablet MSD (Take one a day)
Zetia 10 MG tablet M/S (Take one a bed time)
He also takes aspirin everyday.
And drinks.
His doctors know he's an alcoholic.
I'm begging for professional help here, suggestions, advice, anything.
Thank you,
Joe