Dear Dr. Phil,
I just watched this show and wanted to let you know how I handled my alcoholic husband 15 years ago.
At the time our children were 15, 13, and 10.
My husbands drink of choice was whiskey of which he was going through at least 5 gallon jugs per week. Of course ending each evening with his chin on his chest sitting in the family room on our couch. The kids and I stayed in the living room and talked and watched TV.
The way I got through to him was this: Stayed up most of the night packing his clothes, in the morning when he got out of bed and the kids were at school, I told him that I felt that I couldn't force him to stop his drinking, although if he continued to drink, he was just going to have to find a place to live and drink there. I then made plans to take the kids up north for 2 days and had told my husband I needed his decision when we came home. While away the kids and I had very frank discussions on this subject.
After all, they lived there too and saw what was happening.
Thankfully, this was his wake up call, he quit drinking and hasn't had a drink since.
This show rang a bell with me because I'm a nurse also and at that time was an OR scrub nurse.
The main difference here was that I had many frank discussions with my kids and I never let it be up to them to "take care of him."
D.Kemp from Michigan
