I’m a social drinker who ran into a situation yesterday with an alcoholic. This friend who also lives next door to me called me up in tears and explained how she was really in need of booze. She has been in rehab and everything for it but she keeps falling off the wagon. Her liver has already once started to shut down so she was hospitalized in ICU for a week. Last Monday she accidentally lost her medication for her anxiety problem and so she bought booze. She is trying to get her meds refilled but explained to me that she was having severe withdrawals and needed a couple of shots to stop shaking. I then saw her in person and wanted to bring her to the hospital. We are far from town with no transportation and she pleaded for booze to hold her over until she can get another refill on her meds.

I was told that she can die from the withdrawals if she was forced to stop cold turkey and i know that the booze is killing her too. I didn’t know what to do at that point, i felt responsible and dammed either way. So i agreed to 2 shots, she later snuck in 2 more shots (from my stash) when i was busy with her son.

Where can i go to learn how to handle a situation like that? If anyone knows of a good book, that might be my best bet. Confession, i let her believe that i ran out but i had recently picked up booze and it was just being stored out of the way. Did i make the right or wrong choice allowing her booze in that situation?