Known alcoholic? More details could help someone make a change.
Looking back now as an adult yes my father was an alcoholic. However growing up and seeing it on a day to day basis it was not as noticeable. Looking back I would call my father a highly functioning alcoholic. I never recall him being a slobbering falling down drunk. He never was abusive and was until the later years was a successful small business man. Alcohol was always a part of his daily life. His drink of choice was Canadian whisky and ginger ale. He probably drank every day of his life since his 20's both at home and at social events. Any time we travelled he would be having a drink while driving. We had a Ford pickup with a overhead camper we would go on camping and fishing trips. The pickup had an add on AC under the dash. One of the vents was missing and he would use it to hold his drink cup and the AC would keep his drink cold. As a kid this was so normal and I never thought anything of it until I was married and on my own.
As an adult I started to figure out his drinking was not normal. I once was working checking snowmobiles by patrol pickup in his area and decided to pick him up to ride along. We stopped to check some sleds at some local drag races. We stopped to watch for awhile. My father brought along a small cooler which I though was lunch for the afternoon. He proceeded to pull out a cold beer from the cooler and cracked it open in my patrol vehicle. I was furious and this was the first incident that was noticeable to me where his drinking could have had serious impact on life.
My father was a smoker and had the usual smokers cough but the first sign I noticed he was having alcohol related health issues was when his skin tone started turning a gray color. I drove 800 miles round trip in 1 day just to try to talk him into getting help for his drinking. He tried to make me believe that he had quit drinking. No one I knew claimed to see him drink between that time and when he passed away but I doubt he was able to quit cold turkey. After his skin started to turn grey I noticed he was getting weaker and was walking more and more like an unsteady elderly person. His skin tone soon turned a jaundice yellow color. The time we first noticed the gray skin color to when he passed away was around 6 months. My father was hospitalized for a week before he passed. He appeared to be getting better until the last 2 days and he went down hill fast. I was in the room when he died. I watched the heart monitor steadily get slower and slower until the beat stopped and the line went flat. He then suddenly sat up in the bed with eyes wide open and gave me this horrifying stare before lying back down and all movement stopped. I physically closed his eyelids before leaving the room.
My advise would be if you have family or friends who drink multiple drinks on a daily basis or has the ability to still function after drinking amounts that would cause the rest of us to be out for the count they probably need help for their drinking. Based on my experience after the skin color changes it may be too late.
