DS (14) in hospital after drinking almost a full bottle of vodka

[MumofDrunkTeen]

He has Type 1 diabetes as well and I was terrified of alcohol poisoning after seeing him uncontrollably puking, not able to walk and talking absolute nonsense.

He seems to have bought it from a local corner shop (who I have reported to the police) and took it with friends to drink in a nearby forest.

I checked his FindMy as I do when he’s out and noticed he was there for a while and had an instinct and when I called him his speech was slurred.

I thought at first it may be a hypo and his CGM was wrong (as it has been recently) so rushed there and his friends were trying to hold him up. They said he was drinking but they weren’t and helped me get him to the car.

He’s had a drip of fluids and slept for a few hours and is talking sense now, just waiting to blood sugar to go up as it’s staying low.

Anyone else experienced this?

Mortified he was swearing and shouting like a road man, demanding more vodka and drugs, while young kids in cubicles all around us!

He’s normally extremely polite and that was an alien side to him!

Worst thing was he was saying, ‘I hate my life why do I have to live with this shit, I want to die’about his Type 1. He will never talk about it and be open about how he feels and this has just made me feel so terrible for him!

Yes, but this isnt that, this is a poor teenager struggling with an awful autoimmune condition!

Do you have T1D?

You're missing the point entirely.

@MumofDrunkTeen

how very scary for you!

I hope you've managed to get a bit of sleep.

I think you'd be best having another think about your approach though. Grounding him is punishing him again when he already feels punished with T1D.

its hard to be 'different' when you're a teen & T1D is very isolating. When all your mates are living on teenage crap & you can't. He needs you to love him & 'understand' not be angry & punish him.

i hope you can find some professional help he can engage with.

it's hard as an adult to find, because so many are so patronising & treat you like you're a small child.

he needs to know how scared you were, how much you love him, not how embarassed & angry you were.

its not easy, I know 🤗

Obviously depends if they will accept help but DS relied on me to help manage T1 and appointments etc into uni. I certainly wasn’t stepping back at 13-15. A big part of it is having something extra other dc don’t need to worry about and never having a day off.

i did the no judgement thing with my dc they always knew they could call me and their mates knew too. Experimenting with alcohol is normal for that age and so is risk taking. Their brains work against them at that age. You just have to get them through the next few years safely they will gain maturity and common sense eventually.

Accept there will be alcohol at parties and talk about needing to take precautions eg eating carbs before go out, running a bit high than low, having chips on way home, alternating with soft drinks, stopping before too drunk, understanding units, using cgm alerts, never leaving a mate behind, have a taxi app, ideally training his mates in what to do. It’s unrealistic to expect they won’t be normal teenagers and try the same stuff. The dc who feel they have to hide stuff from their parents get into worse trouble.

The age at diagnosis can make a difference and what can be 'rite of passage' with other teens can add another layer in T1D.
DD was diagnosed at 14. After the initial shock, she seemed to settle well. 4 years later developed a eating disorder and body image issues. The constant focus on her health was the complete opposite of her upbringing. No stressing about foods, healthy exercise, up to 14, the most uncomplicated kid you could meet. 18 yrs later she has booked therapy. T1D is not easy on teenagers.

Oh, yes, alcohol was thrown in the mix too!

I definitely agree with him speaking to someone. My friend speaks to a counsellor who doesn’t know much about T1 but asked her to explain her day on the first appointment. This allowed the counsellor to understand the stress and to help friend work through it.

You could try the Diabetes U.K. helpline:

https://www.diabetes.org.uk

Type 1 is an exhausting, relentless disease, and it’s hard to find and maintain a good mental attitude to it. People with Type 1 have to make more than 200 additional decisions a day, each day, year after year.

You mention your DS didn’t want a pump. So does he have one? If so, maybe talk to him about that - eg would he prefer MDI, the benefits of a pump, etc, etc. Allow him to vent and acknowledge his feelings as completely valid. See if you can find a Type 1 peer via his hospital, or else join the Diabetes U.K. forum.

https://forum.diabetes.org.uk

Beware of a commercial forum with a very similar name and use the link above.

My cousin's son is 19, and I know he went through a rebellious stage around medication/diet/managing his T1. He's now at university, and has come through the other side. I don't think the rebellion is unusual but it still needs addressing.

As a starting point to try and get him to open up is there anyone in your life that is diabetic that he might talk to?

The amount of one dimensional thinking on this thread is astounding. This isn’t just a teen having a stupid amount of alcohol ffs.
OP I hope you both are feeling a bit better after some sleep.

And how have you managed to make that assumption?!

Agreed, but awareness of T1D in this country is so shockingly low! There really needs to be more done.

https://danii.org.au/d-teens-and-alcohol-no-bull-from-uncle-wil/

Nice factual article aimed at teenagers about what goes on in the body when a T1D drinks alcohol.

Ds2 has absorbed the lesson that when he drinks, he should also eat pizza. He's not wrong - a high fat high carb meal really helps counteract the prolonged lows from alcohol.

Having an insulin pump and a cgm is also really useful in managing a night out - might help persuade your ds that tech is a good thing?

You mentioned he didn't want to engage with CAMHS and that he didn't want a pump.

Do you think he would be more interested in engaging with other teens with T1D? Diabetes UK do a lot of work with young people with T1D as it's such a difficult combination - teenage years + diabetes.

https://www.diabetes.org.uk/support-for-you/community-support-and-forums/type-1-youth-programme

It’s not about being different (well it could play a minor role), it’s about the constant constant drudgery of checking levels, topping up, waking in the night if necessary, weighing food … and knowing it will never end. Yes, tech has developed and is helping but it is far from the ‘oh it just tops you up automatically doesn’t it?!’ That people seem to assume.

He definitely needs counselling and maybe a mentor who lives a great/successful life with T1.

I also meant to say.. OP I’m sorry it must have been a horrible shock. Hopefully there no lasting effects and it’s a massive wake up call for him.

Based on this "Mortified he was swearing and shouting like a road man, demanding more vodka and drugs"

That's not first time drinking (or taking drugs), I'm afraid.

Sorry to pick on your response rather than someone else's short-sighted response, it could have been any one of a number!

I don't know if you have personal experience of a teen with Type 1?

However. In response to all the daft comments on here saying 'get over it, it's a teenage thing':
1- let's NOT normalise necking an entire bottle of spirits when our kids are 14, eh? It's bloody dangerous. At best it makes you hurl for England/insert alternative. At worst it potentially leaves you with longer-duration damage, either directly from the alcohol or from what happens to you when you're practically comatose from it and in the company of other drunk teens who haven't yet worked out the social behaviour of drinking in a group (eg, one person stays more or less sober/competent, nobody gets left behind, if you're vomiting then a friend makes sure you don't choke, nobody takes advantage of you in that state, etc etc) Well, at 'worst' you have a horrible accident and die, I suppose. We do now know that a single significant binge on booze can fuck you up medically/physically. I know it happens. It's not ideal, is it?

2 - he's 14, not 16 or 18. That's really young. At that age he could well not be physically large enough to metabolise that amount of booze that maybe a physically mature boy at 18/19 might do.

3 - he's got Type 1. That intersects with all sorts of other health conditions and with the metabolism of alcohol. Basically, a fair amount of booze (we're not even talking about a whole bottle of spirits) can fuck your blood glucose levels about and a lot of booze can lower them dangerously - a hypoglycaemic episode. In extreme cases this can mean a coma.

4 - Because self-care when you have T1 means remaining competent and having the capacity to treat a hypo if your glucose levels go too low (with carbs, for instance) it's a bit of a worry if you're off your head because of how much you've had.

5 - he has ONLY been diagnosed for 2 years! That's nothing. As the OP said, she wishes he'd been diagnosed in childhood so he had more time to get used to it before the teen years hit. It's a huge thing for him to process, at exactly the time his hormones are making him stroppy and want to seek independence and defy the rules, etc - all normal stuff for teenagers. He says he hates this life and his diabetes. That isn't 'just the booze talking' - what a shortsighted thing to say. He ISN'T a typical teenager, because he has T1! Yes he needs a T1-specific counsellor!! It's such a big thing to process at this age. Poor lad.

OP, lots of sympathies but especially for your son. Hopefully he'll remember how scary this was and be more sensible, but at his age, 'sensible' is at odds with the bloody hormones! And I really hope you can fight to get a diabetes counsellor.

It absolutely could be.

I recall a similar teen ranting all night in an A+E department. Didn't see him as security were in the room with him all night but everyone could hear.

In the morning we were surprised to see a slight, embarrassed young teen and not the 6ft gangster the noise had given us the impression of.

His mum made him go round the whole department apologising for how rude and disruptive he'd been. He was genuinely mortified.

Yep this. I know one of the things my DH hates the most is how being low makes him feel and also having to force himself to eat when he doesn’t feel hungry or feels crappy with it. I also notice how it affects his moods, he’s a very cheery man full of carry on and sometimes this stops and it’s such a vast difference. My work colleagues DH was a GP and he was diagnosed in his late 30s she said he wasn’t the man she married again due to the impact on his mental health. I honestly can’t imagine how it must feel I’m just the wife and o find it frustrating at times with the worry, alarms etc.

One god aspect is he will probably realise he is better off not drinking alcohol in future. Seriously it sounds like someone helping him would be worthwhile.

Rather than a counsellor individually he really would benefit from mixing with other type 1 teens. I know 3 youngsters who have been through this stage and all struggled with management vs normal life, Diabetes.org.uk groups for young people really helped the one I know, they went to something in Kettering but there’s other locations too. One of those young people is now grown and an ambassador for a different charity, goes and talks to young people with t1. There is online support too.

having an outlet to talk with others and commiserate how crap it is is so important

Thank you for all the responses.

He woke up this morning at 9am. Right as rain. No hangover at all which is annoying! His sugars stayed high all night which was probably a pod failure (just what we needed!) although went down nicely after putting a new one on. I dozed on and off next to him. No hypos thankfully.

He won’t engage with fellow Type 1s as he says all they have in common is the condition! Which is of course a lot! I’ve tried to get him to follow some really inspiring T1s on SM but he ignores. Still in denial I think.

He insists he has no intention of drinking again and we ensure that is the case while he’s underage as much as possible.

I was dreading him going to Uni, as he says he wants to go and live in halls, so I can only hope this will nip in the bud any drinking to excess.