Alcoholism vs. Allergic Reaction

For the last 5 years I have tried to understand my mother-in-law's odd drinking behavior. She will go long periods of time without a drop of alcohol. But then something will trigger her urge to drink (usually stress related) and she will have a glass of white wine or vodka. Almost immediately, a transformation takes place where she appears to be completely intoxicated--stumbling, slurred speach, obnoxious and baligerant behavior. She never drinks an amount of alcohol that it would normally take to intoxicate an average person of her height and weight, but her actions indicate that she has consumed way too much. The following days are very difficult. What amounts to a "binge" usually lasts two to five days, but the binge involves relatively small quantities of alcohol. During those days, she will display all the characteristics of a depressed alcoholic.

Could this be a severe allergy to alcohol? Is there a medical condition that causes even the smallest amounts of alcohol to have this type of effect? We need to get her some help, but we're trying to figure out where to start.

[hippy]

people and there odd drinking habit,s differ in every situation.
I grew up with a father in AA . I ve seen a lot of strange things.
One thing I was taught  ,It's not what they drink but why they drink.
I think talking to some one from al-non would be a great help to
you. You can find there site on the internet.

[J.B. to Brian and Vicky]

There could be medical reasons for your mother's reaction to alcohol.  Has she had a physical or any blood workups lately? She could be diabetic perhaps.  Is she taking any medications that alcohol may intensify?  Lots of questions have to be addressed before suggesting an allergy to ethanol.

I know you really care about your mother, so be very thorough and arm yourself with as much knowledge as possible.  Yes, the good people of ALANON can be so very helpful!  Even talking with one person can and likely will result in more insight than you'll ever get here. The face to face contact is so important at times like these. We need the intellectual and emotional contact with someone that has gone through this to make things start to click. It is a life and death matter, after all!

J.B.

[hippy]

that's AL-anon

[confused.grl]

When i was a teenager i used to work with this freind that had the same problem, we would go out to a party or something, he would drink one beer and be off the wall it got to the point where nobody would even go anyplace with alcohol if he was going to be there, but it woulnt stop there once he started he would be like that for days. Well after a really good party one time he actually had to be brought to the hospital because he was found in the bathroom unconsious and barely breathing after drinking 6 beers. He was later ok but he was diagnosed as having a allergy to alcohol because he had some sort of liver problem wich was never known about before. About 5 years after that he died due to the liver complications.