Idk what to do anymore
Im so heartbroken. My husband and I have been together since high-school and his mom was one of our teachers. Ive known his family for over 15 years and love them endlessly.
We knew his mom was an alcoholic since day 1, she would sneak alcohol in at the school but nobody ever said anything. Over the years shes gone to rehab, gotten sober, relapsed and just cycled over and over.
My SIL and I have always caught her when she fell and have made her do rehab and therapy what feels like hundreds of times.
MIL never wants to go. She talks circles around the therapists, lies, makes up wild stories, acts like we're all overreacting.. she just moves on with her life like nothings happened.
This past xmas/new years we caught MIL drinking from a flask. When we confronted her she admitted it but told us she had it under control (yeah ok). Told us she was going to stop before she started her new (remote) job in January.
We were all very concerned obviously because she lives alone and is working from home. But she just moved on and told us she stopped drinking and shes fine.
Husband and I have a child and SIL just had a baby too so we just arent able to go up (45min) to her house to check in like how we used to. But we called, MIL and SIL talked every day twice a day so we did our best to keep in contact with her.
March rolled around and she started backing out on weekend plans, stopped calling as much. One day nobody heard from her at ALL. So that night SIL and I drove up to the house and found her almost dead in her bed. Completely jaudice and having a hard time breathing. We rushed her to the ER where she was in the hospital for over a month, the doctors told us its a miracle she survived.
Now shes back home and we are BEGGING her to get help. We've told her she cant cycle again, her liver is holding on by a thread. If she drinks again she will die.
She wont go. She doesn't want to make any changes. Just wants to go back to work and go back to "normal".
I am so frustrated and heartbroken. Finding her like that was traumatizing. We thought we were going to have to plan her funeral. I was trying to figure out how to explain to my son he wont see his grandma anymore. I feel so relieved and lucky that shes alive but how was this not a wake up call???
Im sorry this is so long. I dont want to give up on her but she gets angry at us now when we bring up that she needs therapy and has to find some coping skills. She cant isolate herself anymore but she just wont listen. I dont know what to do anymore. She's my MIL but I love her so much and she means the world to my son. I dont want to give up but I dont know what to do anymore.