I recently did a week long stint in a local mental health facility which also treats substance abusers. I met a woman in the facility who was detoxing from alcohol and benzos. We became fast friends and were practically joined at the hip the whole time I was inside. We agreed to keep in contact and become friends after discharge. That discharge came 3 days ago. She seemed very resolute about staying off the substances, and she sincerely promised to call me if she ever started feeling weak. I've visited her at her home on two of those three days since we got out, and something happened yesterday evening which has me worried. She removed an empty wine bottle from her refrigerator while I was there, stating that it was left over from before she checked herself into the facility. I'm an implicitly trusting person by nature (it's a part of my mental health condition in fact) and I accepted her explanation of where the bottle came from without question at the time. Only this morning did it occur to me that she could have been lying, and that she may have showed me the bottle as a cry for help, hoping I would become suspicious and confront her about it.
I don't know where to go from here. I've never had a close friendship or relationship with an alcoholic before, so I don't know the relapse warning signs. Should I voice my suspicions to her and offer her my support? She's new in town and doesn't have any friends or family members in the area checking on her from day to day. She could very easily be drinking again without anyone around to notice.
I've only recently met this woman and I'm afraid of overstepping my bounds, but if she's using again and I can do something to help her, I want to. Any advice, guys?
Submitted April 04, 2015 at 10:49PM by aspiedrummer http://ift.tt/1HxGkrm AlAnon
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