Ask Sam

Hi there,

Thanks for your letter.

It sounds like you might be worried about your brother’s drinking and you’ve done well to write a letter to me about it.

You have said your brother doesn’t know what he does to himself when he’s drinking and it seems like you mean the effect drinking can have on his health. It could be really difficult for you when you try to explain the risks to your brother and he doesn’t listen. This can be both frustrating and worrying, especially when the damage is clear to everyone except the person who is drinking.

I can hear that you want to make him listen and I’m wondering whether it might be helpful to find out more about the effects of drinking before you try talking to him again. In a situation like this it is also worth looking at your relationship with your brother and asking if you are the best person to talk to him. It can be helpful to think about other people he might listen to. Perhaps you could talk to such a person first. It can be hard to make people listen and sometime we need to talk to them in a different way. Talking to people about the effect their behaviour is having on us in one way to begin such a conversation, especially if the person is not aware of this.

You can find lots of useful information about alcohol and its harmful effects on the NHS website. There is also a page in the Explore section of our website about alcohol that you might find it helpful to look at.

If you want to talk more about this you can speak to a ChildLine counsellor at any time by phoning free on 0800 111,  using the website to send an email or by having a 1-2-1 chat which is a bit like msn messenger.

Take care,

Sam