Trying to help friend who can’t stop drinking and can’t get past MH issues
Hello, so my best friend has had serious mental health issues that have led her to having serious physical health issues in her life and idk where to even start…
She has messed up her liver and pancreas crazy bad, she’s had diabetes for a few years now, she can’t gain weight, and lately shes been having blood clots coming out of her nose on a normal basis the last week or so. She’s messed herself up for crazy excessive drinking which she doesn’t do as heavy as she used to, but she STILL does it and I know her doctors been telling her she’s needed to quit for years. She’s tiny (right around 100lbs) and she looks like a skeleton. She tells me she does coke too about once a week, which I very much suspect is more than she says.
Now about her family… her father and mother split when she was young and for most of her life her mom has been married to her stepdad who she grew up with in their house. Her dad and her never been very close. Her mom and stepdad drink a LOT and I know have been big enablers of her drinking. She’s closest with her stepdad who she gets along with. Her mom has been the worst parent to her all her life. Just telling her she’s not worth anything, whenever she’s (my friend) has been in the hospital the MANY times in past years, her mom gives her shit about it and tells her she’s faking it and all the illnesses she’s been dealing with bc of the drinking.
She ask me about “what she should do” all the time about her health and I always tell her she needs to get sober and listen to her doctors. I explain to her she needs to seek therapy and do a something to quit drinking but every time it leads to her just completely deflecting any advice. I know a lot of it is bc she doesn’t want to quit drinking and partying, but I know a lot of it is also bc she has no idea how she can even go about it… her whole personality revolves around drinking. All her friends except me enable her to drink, her mom and stepdad enable her. All her socials (she has a HUGE social media addiction with FB, TT and IG) and I know she just has no grasp on how she could still “be her” in her life among everyone she knows and associates with.
The worst part about it is she had a young son (father is gone) who she is his complete world. I try to tell her things about how she needs to learn to move past her mom treating her like garbage and live for herself and her son. Her mom has never developed mentally past middle school and is just a horrible person who never deserved to have children. She (my friend) knows her son needs her but won’t stop drinking bc of all the emotional hell her mom has put her through… it’s just heartbreaking.
But like I said, I try explaining mental heath to her, stuff about learning to let her moms grasp on her life go so she can live for making herself better. I try explaining to her that for her to get sober she needs to sort out who her friends are and if any of them know how sick she is and still push her to party, they aren’t her friends. As far as I know, I’m the only one who’s ever visited her in some of her hospital visits.
So any advice and suggestions that come from me, she deflects and ignores, I know she knows she needs to hear it, I’m the only person she comes to for advice but then she never takes it… how can I help her?! I thought maybe if I found a good starter book and/or self help guide it could be a start just for her to see this is stuff millions of people have been thru and there is no shame in trying face it and make better for yourself with it. I told her I’de even read it to her if she wants. I’m so out of clues on how to help her tho… if anyone can suggest some good books and/or online things that could help her with any of the many things she has going on, I’de appreciate it a ton. I’m pretty sure she’ll still ignore it all, but I feel like I can’t just not try to help if I’m able to.
Appreciate any of you who read all that and have any constructive feedback. Thank you, and God bless 🙏
Posted Mar 30, 2026, 6:19 AM UTC