Ask Amy: Mother frets about daughter’s alcoholism
Dear Amy: I have a 49-year-old daughter who is an elementary school teacher. She became an alcoholic during Covid. She has a master’s degree, a beautiful home, and a partner of nine years.
She will lose it all, due to her drinking.
She won't go to AA, and I have suggested inpatient rehab – to no avail.
It is breaking my heart.
Her father died from cirrhosis of the liver due to alcoholism at 57, and I'm scared I will lose her, too.
She has a twin sister and a brother.
Do you have any suggestions besides Al-Anon?
– Scared Mom
Dear Scared: Your daughter is aware of the worst-case outcome if her addiction spirals, untreated, and if she is unable to attain and maintain sobriety. She knows this because she has felt the consequences and the loss from end-stage alcoholism. Your whole family has had real-life exposure to the danger of this addiction.
But she is an addict.
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