Getting my mother the help she needs.
Please let me know if I’m posting this in the wrong thread. I’ve been a Reddit user for a long time but I very rarely post anything, however; I am so utterly lost on what to do with my mother, and my father doesn’t know what to do either so here I am asking for help. I live in Washington but my parents live just across the boarder in Idaho (Coeur d’ Alene). Over the last 6-8 months my mother’s health has been declining so much so that I barely recognize her anymore. A while back she had a seizure while driving and totaled her car and, from what I have been told, she had a brain aneurysm. My parents have not given me a lot of information but what I do know is that my mom refused to go back to the hospital and now is almost unrecognizable in her current state. She was released from the hospital and everything seemed fine for a few months, that is until now. She is constantly pooping herself or on things, undressing herself in public, passing out in random places (such as the bathroom or living room), vomiting, and has this head twitch. Most of the time a lot of these things happen in the middle of the night after she’s been drinking, but I’ve found her half naked on the floor in the middle of the day before. Now I should also mention she is an alcoholic and always has been. Usually it was 2-3 glasses of wine a night when I was growing up but now I’ve seen her chug whiskey or drink an entire bottle of wine in one sitting. I want to help her but she refuses to go anywhere and also refuses to stop drinking.
So what I would like to know is what steps can I take to get her the help she needs if she will not consent to our help? My father is old and also not wanting to help much so it feels like it’s mostly on me here. I’m sorry for the long post but I just wanted to give context to the situation so I can find the best solution. Thank you for your time.
Location: ID
Posted Sep 21, 2026, 6:26 PM UTC