Please help - alchoholic Brother

[biglill]

My Brother has been abusing alcohol for years but although it has bothered me I have had too much going on in my own life to be able to get involved. Now however I feel I can sit back no longer and let this ruin his life. He is only early twenties and has had a difficult year, we lost our Dad in pretty traumatic circumstances and his first child was born within a month of that happening. I hear from his partner he is worse than ever with the drinking, hiding bottles etc, the relationship is failing and he is not pulling his weight with the baby. I am really scared for him that he is going to do serious damage to himself, at the moment his partner really wants to leave with the baby as home-life is miserable for them all. He has admitted to her this week that he is suffering from depression. I really feel that if he could kick the alcohol and get help for the depression things could be great for them, this baby was very much planned and wanted, I think naively we all thought she would come along and fix things. I have promised his partner that I will try to help them so I plan to arrange to meet my Brother for an initial chat, he may not agree even to this but hopefully he will surprise me and be compliant. I will need to choose my words incredibly carefully and get the key points across early on as he could flip and leave at any time. Any advice on what I need to say or should not say is much appreciated, also is there anything I can/should take eg contact details for organisations, leaflets, info on the damage he has caused himself. Where can we get the best support? Thanks.

[midnightvelvetPart2]

Be prepared for him not to be compliant & instead get angry & refuse to admit there is a problem. I hope he's not but its a possibility.

Sad as it is you cannot make the decision for him to ask for help, he is the only one who can do that & he may not be ready to take that step, regardless of what you say to him. Talk to him yes, but don't expect him to be on board

[biglill]

Thanks for getting back to me. I expect he probably will deny having a problem and tell me to mind my own business. This is one thing I have no control over. Thanks again for your input.