what do you do ?

[mario]

lovely day outside,went for a walk with my partner,A while later met an old friend of mine,i know he is a very bad alcoholic and that is all he does ,drink & drink and lie on the streets.talking to him and he was shaking and nearly dry reaching every few moments.so he asked me if i had any money to get some vodka,so i gave him about 8 euro,he did brighten up, but. should i or should i not have given him money knowing were he was heading.

[Waving_not_drowning]

what do you do ?

It's his choice, not yours Mario..

I would have given him a few quid for booze as well...

You just might have stopped him getting the DT's...

Wavey

[tiptronic_ct]

what do you do ?

mario;713858 wrote: lovely day outside,went for a walk with my partner,A while later met an old friend of mine,i know he is a very bad alcoholic and that is all he does ,drink & drink and lie on the streets.talking to him and he was shaking and nearly dry reaching every few moments.so he asked me if i had any money to get some vodka,so i gave him about 8 euro,he did brighten up, but. should i or should i not have given him money knowing were he was heading.

Mario,

I think you should relax about it and not feel guilty, or as if you've betrayed yourself or him in any way. The place and shape he's in, he would no doubt have found money elsewhere, or have a seizure if he couldn't.

I know it bugs the sh!t out of me when I see others with AL problems, because I know only too well where they're headed. I want to cry when I see the students in the town where I live headed to the offie to stock up for their binges.

Sad fact is: we can do nothing about it. We can only be grateful that we have found a way out, or are busy doing it after realising that there is a problem.

[tiptronic_ct]

what do you do ?

Waving_not_drowning;713872 wrote: It's his choice, not yours Mario..

I would have given him a few quid for booze as well...

You just might have stopped him getting the DT's...

Wavey

Great minds think alike :-)

[rubywillow]

what do you do ?

What he does, he does. Not having the AL he craved could be life-threatening. Again, there but for the Grace of God........

[Popeye]

what do you do ?

I once gave ?2 to a guy I knew to go and get some beer or himself. I was drinking at the time, but I hadn't reached the depths that I eventually would. He was sort of the town drunk, harmless, but a bit of a niusance. He had been drinking already and he thanked me and went on his way. Two hours later I heard that he had been found dead in the back of a van. He passed out and never woke up.
My first thoughts about this were that I'd some burden of responsibility for his death, but I later came to the conclusion that he had killed himself. There's a thing that I don't really like about myself; I'm kind of hardened to these stories, as I hear them so very often. "Do you know Billy died?" "Ah well. It was always on the cards the way he drank." and I'll wish Billy well wherever he is now and get on with my day. There's a young man who lives next door who's in intensive care right now because he drinks too much. He's 19. I've known him since he was born and I'm sorry for him and his family but I can't do anything about the way he choses to live, or die.
If I'm asked now, sometimes I give and sometimes I just tell them I'm broke. I'll ask them to take care and remember will not a little gratitude, that it could so easily have been me and hope that they can find their way out of the mess that they have found themselves in.

[MissMerlot]

what do you do ?

Popeye's right...as much as we pity and worry when we see those who are headed in our direction we cannot make differences to their lives.We are all responsible for how we choose to live.
It's a shame he hasn't found his way out but i'd say if he hadn't have got the money from you he woudl've got it from someone else...
You may have prevented him having a seizure like tiptronic said.
And you're right Ruby...There for the grace of god goes us all!!!

xx