Help me help a friend!

[WanderLost Radical]

Okay, so I met this girl while travelling, and I noticed she had alcoholic tendencies, but I didn<t really pay attention to it, thinking it wasn<t really bad, but after meeting up with her again, I noticed that she<s in a really bad place right now, and since I already dealt with it a few months ago, I know exactly what she<s into, and really wanna help, so we talked, and agreed to have a chat in a few days, when we<re both sober. Or at least not hammered. And when I left for the night, we hugged goobye, let go, and she hugged me back and said: Please save me from myself!!

That was probably the most heart-wrenching thing I<ve ever heard... So I need you guys< advices on how to deal with this.

 

[Mankini]

just be loving, supportive, and selfless. google some resources in the area.

 

[WanderLost Radical]

Kinda hard googling ressources, as I'm in Cambodia (probably not that many english-speaking ones) and she goes home to England in like 4 days, and she has like 14$ to her name. Help groups arent free, are they?

 

[WanderLost Radical]

Im planning on doing all you said, plus explaining her how I went back on my feet, but it's not like it's simple, and it's definitely not a miracle solution. Everyone is different

 

[Deleted member 125]

having gone through pretty awful cold turkey alcohol dt's myself i can say its pretty much hands down the worst experience of my life. depending on how bad off she is tell her to buckle up...

the first time i ended up being taken to a hospital after day 4 of hallucinating. so he second time when i decided again it was time to cut this shit out i did it a bit different. without going into too many details on what its physically like to cut yerself off from booze ide say she needs to be somewhere she feels safe before even attempting it. i would also suggest not going cold turkey (again not sure how bad off she is alot of people think having a few drinks a day is bad, i was downing half a gallon of whiskey plus a few 40's throughout the day while at work, this went on for the better part of 10 years if that gives any idea of the level of my drinking) because its just plain dangerous. i stopped drinking booze and just drank beer for a few weeks to ease myself down, it helped but it was still pretty physically taxing, i didnt sleep much and had a super short fuse. i also changed my diet, i cut out meat all together and started eating alot of fruits and vegetables and taking multi vitamins. whole grains and spinach for real.

i feel bad saying dont look into places where she can get help, but imo those places are hell on earth and not a good place to be.

 

[Mankini]

http://www.rehab-online.org.uk/

 

[Matt Derrick]

Kinda hard googling ressources, as I'm in Cambodia (probably not that many english-speaking ones) and she goes home to England in like 4 days, and she has like 14$ to her name. Help groups arent free, are they?

sorry to pull you into this @landpirate but maybe you have some advice that's relevant to the england region?

 

[Matt Derrick]

moved from general banter to staying healthy.

 

[roguetrader]

@Carl Wander do you think your friend is in as bad a state as @cantcureherpes describes above - i'm talking full on alcohol consumption all day everyday 24 / 7 / 365 OR is she more of a heavy drinker who uses alcohol as a 'crutch' so to speak ? if it is the first option then doctors frequently recommend keeping some kind of diary / record of what is drunk everyday and using that to gradually reduce the level of the 'habit' so to speak - the idea is if you are drinking say 12 tall cans of strong beer everyday you gradually try to get this down to 11 then 10 then 9 and so on (rather like an opiate reduction) until you reach a level where attempting to stop won't potentially kill you.... severe longterm alcoholics can have fits / seizures and other dangerous symptoms if they stop abruptly ! BUT doing this reduction thing is very hard especially when you live the chaotic life of an alcoholic - the temptation to go FUCK IT and get completely wasted and defy the reduction plan is great, but what are the alternatives ? HOWEVER looking on the bright side if your friend is young she is probably not a hardcore alcoholic (yet) it takes quite a few years of really heavy drinking to get in the state cantcureherpes decribes above, so hopefully if she gets back to the UK and can find somewhere safe with good friends or understanding family maybe she can level out a bit ? a few Valium might be good in the short term - they help with sleep and kill the anxiety / fear that comes when the booze runs out - and i'm sure your support even from a distance will help her - it's great to know people give a fuck.......

 

[WanderLost Radical]

I dont think shes in such a bad state, but I know for sure she downs at least a bottle of whiskey every day, amd shes fucking smashed every time I see her...

 

[Deleted member 16034]

Are you staying in Cambodia or are you following her to England? Be very careful if you grab a valium or a xanax, if she decides to drink heavily within 20ish hours or taking one of those pills she'd be in for a rough time.