Dear Queenie,
My daughter is a professional woman and has a good job. She lives with her boyfriend, who hasn’t worked for years and likes to drink, and my daughter drinks with him and as long as she lives with him I think she will keep on drinking with him and things will get worse and worse and she might even lose her job too.
Queenie, what can I do to help her?—Worried Mother
Dear Mother,
There is not much you can do for a grown-up child who becomes addicted to drugs or alcohol, especially if they have a partner who is also addicted. Your daughter may think she is supporting her boyfriend in his drinking (as well as financially) but she is just enabling him, and as long as she has her job she probably will think everything is okay.
You can find support and more information through Al-Anon at al-anon.alateen.org.
