Not sure if Relationships is the right place for this but I can't see a closer category so..
My family are becoming increasing concerned about one of my sisters, who is alcohol dependent. She always 'enjoyed a drink' but she became dependent during a very unhappy, stressful marriage. It was thought she would cut back after they divorced and he was out of her life, but (unsurprisingly) it didn't happen and now she's in a ltr with a man who also drinks a lot. She told me that he said himself that he has an alcohol problem (he is a semi retired police-man, for context).
They seem to be dragging each other down, though sadly I'm not surprised she got into a relationship with another drinker; as a light/moderate drinker would've been unlikely to stick around.
Recently she turned up a family party extremely drunk at 9 or earlier in the evening, my Mum spoke to her afterward and her response was 'you know me, I like to party; I've always liked to party'. My mum has recently lost one of her brothers to liver disease caused by longterm alcoholism and later said to my eldest sister that she "just hoped she wouldn't be around to see it" (the same thing happen to my sister).
She also seems to be losing weight and not looking well, her drinking seems to start earlier in the day; in short things seem to be getting worse.
Not wanting to sound too critical but she has always tended to do what pleases her, without a great deal of thought for consequences, and we all feel suggesting rehab or similar will be met with dismissal and offence etc.
But I feel like it isn't right to not even try to help her and just accept "ok, she an alcoholic, she doesn't want to stop, she'll just do that til her liver gives up" (she's 48 btw).
Has anyone any experience with this, was it successful and how did you approach it?