Does anyone have any knowledge about alcohol dependency? My mother has always had a much lower tolerance for alcohol than she thinks, with the result that she often becomes a slightly annoying drunk at family dinners etc. Occasionally she shocks me by being completely drunk at odd times - once I phoned her at 11am to tell her something, and then half an hour later she called me again with no recollection of our conversation. Turned out she'd downed a bottle of wine. But most of the time she is fine and doesn't really seem like a 'problem' drinker.
BUT - yesterday my dad had to go into hospital for an operation. My mum took him there in a cab and waited in the pub for him to come out of theatre. She drank 2 glasses of wine while in the pub, then bought a little bottle (1/3 of a bottle I think) of wine to take back to the hospital with her, and had pretty much finished that by the time he came round. By that time she was completely incoherent. She then became very maudlin and abusive towards him, finally storming out of the hospital. She called me as she was wandering the streets with no idea of where she was and unable really to string a sentence together. My sister went to collect her and took her home, where she was very sorry for herself and melodramatic, and claimed she wasn't drunk at all. This morning she can't remember any of it.
My feeling is that when alcohol interferes with your life to the extent that you can't support your loved ones when they need you, you are an alcoholic. Do you think this is true? And if so what should she do about it? She says 'maybe I should go dry for a bit,' but I wonder whether there's much point in that.