alchoholism in people with dementia

essix_girl

Registered User
Jul 7, 2011
1
0
Hello, I am looking for advice about treatment of alcoholism in people with dementia. My mother (80) was diagnosed with vascular or mixed dementia a couple of years ago, it is early stages and appears to be well controlled by Aricept. However, her drinking has got worse and worse to the point where she drinks to the point of drunkenness every evening and is abusive with anyone who suggests she should cut down or stop. She's due to go for a liver scan next week and there may be some serious health effects. It's making life pretty miserable for those involved in her care. The doctor has read her the riot act and told her to stop drinking but she won't listen and she says it's the only thing she enjoys, she'd rather be dead than stop drinking. Yet it's clearly having a negative effect on both her general health and her mood.

She denies/forgets/pretends to forget there is a problem and even if she agrees she should stop, the next time she wants a drink she'll just deny having agreed not to. We water down her drink but she just has more of them. We bought a bottle of non-alcoholic whisky but she laughed us out of the room.

So in many ways she's a typical alcoholic but on the other hand the dementia makes it complicated. I don't know where to get specialist help or advice.

The main practical issue at the moment is, I don't know whether we should stop her access to alcohol (and take the consequences which may include her telling us all where to go, being left on her own and having an alcohol-related accident). Or let her drink and just walk away. Or accept that it's her choice, let her drink and stay to watch, which I personally find very difficult.

Would love to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience or who knows of any resources or where to get help. There seems to be quite a lot of information on alcohol-induced dementia--but this is a different problem and I haven't seen much discussion of it.
 

MissisT

Registered User
Dec 1, 2010
283
0
77
Essex
Not quite the same

My husband doesn't drink now but before he was diagnosed he started drinking very heavily - I was finding empty vodka bottles all over the place. He doesn't drink now because he never leaves the house and I don't buy it for him. I wouldn't mind him having the odd beer but he doesn't like the taste and he does have the occasional snowball (not much advocaat and loads of lemonade) when he's feeling sociable.

I think he was literally drowning his sorrows - it made him feel better at least for a little while - but his liver function was affected and he fell and was sometimes sick. He used to drink vodka and cranberry juice and still drinks lots of cranberry.

I don't suppose this is any help to you but if I were you, I certainly wouldn't be able to stay and watch. I was on the point of walking out when we finally got to the bottom of what was happening to him.

I wish I could help more - maybe someone else will have some suggestions.
Teresa
 

Owly

Registered User
Jun 6, 2011
537
0
If you google alcohol and capillaries, you'll find that it makes dementia worse because alcohol has a dilatory effect which is good in the large veins/arteries but in the tiny capillaries it can break them and so destroy brain cells.

How is your mum getting her alcohol? if you're buying it for her, then you're being an "enabler" of her addiction.

If she was a child, you'd do what was right, even if she had a screaming fit about it. I do think that when our parents have dementia and are making bad choices about themselves AND it also affects the people around them and (incidentally) puts even more strain on NHS resources, then we should be strong and determined about putting a stop to it.
 

turbo

Registered User
Aug 1, 2007
3,852
0
In my opinion Owly alcoholics ( even those with dementia) are like drug addicts and can find all sorts of ways to get alcohol.

Turbo
 

Canadian Joanne

Registered User
Apr 8, 2005
17,710
0
70
Toronto, Canada
The main practical issue at the moment is, I don't know whether we should stop her access to alcohol (and take the consequences which may include her telling us all where to go, being left on her own and having an alcohol-related accident). Or let her drink and just walk away. Or accept that it's her choice, let her drink and stay to watch, which I personally find very difficult.
The bolding is mine.

It seems that essix girl's mother doesn't have direct access to alcohol. So although alcoholics can be very clever in getting their drink, if her mother is not very mobile, she may be able to cut down the alcohol.

It is a very hard decision - not as easy as it first appears. I'm not sure what I would do in the circumstances. Since watering down the alcohol doesn't work, maybe a full blown ban is the way to go.

On the whole, I think trying to cut the alcohol out is the best way to go, essix girl. If that doesn't work at least you will know you have tried every avenue to help your mother.
 

Sam Iam

Registered User
Sep 29, 2008
3,151
0
62
WEST OF THE MOON
Hi EG,
I am that TPer, we water mums drink down so much but I have seen her using a pint tumbler to get past that particular problem. We are convinced she has drink problem too, to the verge of being an alcoholic. I have posted this already. We have decided that since mum has a degenerative brain disease and probably likes that feeling that she gets with alcohol, that she should continue with the very watered down whiskey.
It's horrible EG but and I know all of the health problems that can occur, we are continuing to buy and supply whilst monitoring her intake.
Ope this helps you xxxx
 

Jancis

Registered User
Jun 30, 2010
2,567
0
70
Hampshire
Hi essix girl, welcome to Talking Point.
Your mother's alcohol problem must be very difficult. But dementia or no dementia, she is obviously feeling the need for alcohol. It is a drug after all and can mask the symptoms of depression and anxiety in many of us. I think if I realised that I was losing my faculties to dementia I might try and drown my sorrows - for better or for worse. But as everyone rightly says, alcohol mixed with Aricept and the illness is not going to help her health-wise. Does she only drink in the evenings? This might be the worse time of the day for her - it's often referred to as sundowning when sufferers feel at their lowest ebb.
 

Tender Face

Account Closed
Mar 14, 2006
5,379
0
NW England
Hi Essixgirl. There has been discussion about this issue in the past, including from myself. My own mother’s drinking became a cause for concern ... e.g. drinking wine in the morning!!!! :eek: Drinking heavily (probably because she had forgotten she had already had a glass? Depressed? No sense of time? Who knows?) ... she had always enjoyed a ‘little tipple’ previously, (an odd cinzano out and about – a hot toddy or two at night time sometimes) but nothing on the scale I witnessed as her dementia deteriorated.

I am sending you some links to old threads by PM (Private Message) – only because having glanced at them some members’ circumstances have very much changed and I don’t always feel it is fair to bring them back to the public forum again (in case they are viewing and it distresses them to be confronted with them unexpectedly).

I do hope you find a solution. I might ‘buck the trend’ here .... although I have to say my mother never drank to the point of being ‘collapsed drunk’ (as far as I am ever aware!!!!) ... and I am sure I would have had to try think of something else had that happened .... but after discussing her drinking with her GP and CPN (mum too was on Aricept at this point) all agreed if it made her happy – let her get on with it ... I had a couple of years making sure she had a plentiful supply of wine, low alcohol licquer type drinks – in an effort to keep her off the whisky!!!! (Damage limitation rather than a completely ‘off-limits’ policy). She still managed to get herself to the local shop occasionally, for her 40% proof, mind! :rolleyes:

Her palliative care plan some time later included allowing her to enjoy as many Baileys and hot toddies as she cared to drink – any time day or night – not that she could manage to swallow that much by that time anyway. :( Some people may baulk at that –I guess different stages and different circumstances cause for different measures .... but I was blessed with having a care team supporting us who endorsed my thinking around quality rather than quantity of life, especially not knowing what might be around the corner.

I guess I saw her alcohol consumption as giving her pleasure, rather than a crutch for something else, and felt it inappropriate to even try to completely remove something giving someone whose quality of life otherwise was reducing and diminishing and was coming to an inevitable end anyway? Then again – my mother did not become abusive with it (quite the reverse), it even seemed to relax her and improve her cognitive skills at times (????) and unlike your mother’s GP, even her medical supporters endorsed allowing her to make her own choices as long as she was not becoming an immediate danger to herself or others in doing so.

Just my thoughts. I am sure many will think otherwise. I hope the content of the links and previous discussions are helpful.

Karen, x
 

littlegem

Registered User
Nov 11, 2010
837
0
north Wales
Hi,
It should be said that stopping a serious alcoholics drink straight off is potentially dangerous.
They should be weaned off it gradually, it's too much of a shock to the system all at once.