Hi my names Katie,
My brother has been an alcoholic for 20+ years and has been through multiple detox programmes but he has always relapsed. Almost a year ago now he was found in his home, barely conscious therefore an ambulance was called and he was in hospital for 3 weeks. He had various injuries from falling etc. Mostly bruises and was bed ridden for most of the 3 weeks. He was diagnosed with wernickes encephalopathy, which as I understand is a neurological disorder caused by lack of vitamin b1. In my brothers case it's because of the alcohol abuse. This left him with severe nerve damage in his extremities and memory problems.
He was quite determined to abstain from alcohol at this point, and received physiotherapy and withdrawal medication. The symptoms of the wernickes seemed to subside. He managed to walk again and his mental well being improved, like I had my old brother back. He managed around 9 to 12 weeks, but relapsed again.
He has gradually deteriorated since then and the symptoms of the wernickes are back. A few weeks ago he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and has been hitting the alcohol even harder since then, thus the symptoms of the wernickes has rapidly increased. His coordination is all over the place, repeatedly falling and having to drag himself to bed as hes not strong enough to pick himself up. He is terribly paranoid, he thinks his neighbours have set up cameras filming him, and constantly has the curtains closed. He believes himself to be special and has a some kind of superior mind to everyone else (this is a symptom of the personality disorder) which makes it difficult trying to broach the subject of helping him. Very irrational a lot of the time, lots of angressive outbursts. This very upsetting and frightening at times.
There has been numerous professionals involved, GPs, counsellors, psychiatrists all of whom have been great. The problem is my brother, whilst he has moments of realisation where he recognises he needs to detox, when push comes to shove he will not see anything through. We have even been to a psychiatric hospital and he was ready to go in to stay and be sectioned, and he dropped out last minute, swearing and being aggressive to the staff.
He lives alone with a dog, unfortunately he has pushed all his friends away so there is me, my mum and my husband. We all work full time and cannot be there for him all the time. I personally think he needs to be somewhere with 24 hour care due his deteriorating physical and mental health. The problem is I am finding it difficult finding resources who can help us. All I'm told is that because hes an alcoholic and it's his choice he does not qualify for that kind of care as it's the alcohol making him that way and he is quite different when hes sober.
I hope you understand my frustration as I am completely at a loss what to do next. I lay awake each night terrified hes died from falling or alcohol overdose.
I also apologize if I'm in the wrong place, but there isn't much I could find about wernickes karsocoff syndrome apart from alcohol related dementia, which led me here.
Thank you for taking the time to read and for any responses, apologies for the lengthy post, this is the short version ha! If I've missed anything out please ask
Katie
My brother has been an alcoholic for 20+ years and has been through multiple detox programmes but he has always relapsed. Almost a year ago now he was found in his home, barely conscious therefore an ambulance was called and he was in hospital for 3 weeks. He had various injuries from falling etc. Mostly bruises and was bed ridden for most of the 3 weeks. He was diagnosed with wernickes encephalopathy, which as I understand is a neurological disorder caused by lack of vitamin b1. In my brothers case it's because of the alcohol abuse. This left him with severe nerve damage in his extremities and memory problems.
He was quite determined to abstain from alcohol at this point, and received physiotherapy and withdrawal medication. The symptoms of the wernickes seemed to subside. He managed to walk again and his mental well being improved, like I had my old brother back. He managed around 9 to 12 weeks, but relapsed again.
He has gradually deteriorated since then and the symptoms of the wernickes are back. A few weeks ago he was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, and has been hitting the alcohol even harder since then, thus the symptoms of the wernickes has rapidly increased. His coordination is all over the place, repeatedly falling and having to drag himself to bed as hes not strong enough to pick himself up. He is terribly paranoid, he thinks his neighbours have set up cameras filming him, and constantly has the curtains closed. He believes himself to be special and has a some kind of superior mind to everyone else (this is a symptom of the personality disorder) which makes it difficult trying to broach the subject of helping him. Very irrational a lot of the time, lots of angressive outbursts. This very upsetting and frightening at times.
There has been numerous professionals involved, GPs, counsellors, psychiatrists all of whom have been great. The problem is my brother, whilst he has moments of realisation where he recognises he needs to detox, when push comes to shove he will not see anything through. We have even been to a psychiatric hospital and he was ready to go in to stay and be sectioned, and he dropped out last minute, swearing and being aggressive to the staff.
He lives alone with a dog, unfortunately he has pushed all his friends away so there is me, my mum and my husband. We all work full time and cannot be there for him all the time. I personally think he needs to be somewhere with 24 hour care due his deteriorating physical and mental health. The problem is I am finding it difficult finding resources who can help us. All I'm told is that because hes an alcoholic and it's his choice he does not qualify for that kind of care as it's the alcohol making him that way and he is quite different when hes sober.
I hope you understand my frustration as I am completely at a loss what to do next. I lay awake each night terrified hes died from falling or alcohol overdose.
I also apologize if I'm in the wrong place, but there isn't much I could find about wernickes karsocoff syndrome apart from alcohol related dementia, which led me here.
Thank you for taking the time to read and for any responses, apologies for the lengthy post, this is the short version ha! If I've missed anything out please ask
Katie
