My friend is an alcoholic. She's had periods of sobriety lasting several weeks or months but never manages to stick with it. I saw her a couple of months ago and she said she wasn't drinking. She seemed sober and to be in a good place.
Saw her again yesterday and it was a totally different story ... I went round to her house and we sat in her kitchen which was filthy (she blamed her tenant for this). She was drinking an electrolyte drink from a pint glass. At one point she left the room, came back with a full glass of 'water' and added more electrolyte tablets to it. I thought I could smell alcohol. When she left the room a bit later, I sniffed her almost empty glass and it definitely had vodka in it. I also spotted an empty vodka bottle in a bag in the hallway as we were leaving. We went to the shop together and she was wobbling all over the place. When I hugged her goodbye she stank of alcohol.
I'm obviously concerned about her generally, but I'm particularly concerned because she told me she has been offered a new job starting in January (she hasn't been working for most of the last year due to a health issue not cause by, but definitely made worse by, her drinking). She is in a profession were she could get banned if caught drunk at work.
I really want to challenge her. To tell her that I know she is still drinking and I'm worried about her and about her starting the new job. But I'm wondering if there is really any point? I'd rather not push her away completely. Does anyone have any advice about the best way to raise it with her (or whether I even should)?