I would guess it has to do with growth in the number of elderly out there. But that doesn't change the fact that dealing with problems like addiction is an incredibly difficult thing even when they're not complicated by the other issues that affect older people. My dad was a relatively heavy drinker during his adult life -- not a severe 24-7 alcoholic -- but someone with a drinking problem; going to the bar 2-3 nights a week and drinking way too much, but he slowed down dramatically in his fifties. He's since developed Alzheimer's at an early age. 58 or so. His father developed dementia when he was in his eighties and near death but otherwise there's no history of Alzheimer's or severe dementia in our family. I can't help but wonder if the damage my dad did to his brain over the years contributed to his Alzheimer's or if somehow the growth of his dementia had something do with why his drinking slowed down.

My mother-in-law is in her 70's and has been addicted to alcohol for the last 13 years and is currently abusing her medications. Her parents and most of her siblings are dead, I don't know their history. Her first husband my husband's father is dead and so is her third husband don't know if the 2nd one is still alive. She was the youngest sister and hung around a partied with her older siblings. My husband thinks she started drinking after the 2nd husband left, but I think she could have been abusing alcohol before that and he was too young to tell the difference. He said he found empty alcohol bottles thrown over the fence onto the railroad tracks behind her house. I know he said his mom and dad fought a lot before the divorce and I'm sure they partied a lot. He remembers being left alone with his older sister while the "went out". She started taking patients medications that were under her care. Then she went back to alcoholism, she lost her house to foreclosure so she came to live with her son. His sister moved away and they haven't heard from her for over 30 years. He kicked her out because of her drinking then took her back but bought another house and moved out. Then we married. We fixed up the house, painting etc for her but she was supposed to take care of it which she hasn't done so. She had blockages in her heart and had stints put in. She continued to drink and smoke and not exercise. Then she developed diabetes, she overdosed on codeine laced cough syrup and checked herself into the hospital, they put her on oxygen and sent her home. She then started overusing inhalers to get a high. She either had a stroke and/or fell and was willing to go to the hospital only because she thought she could get pain medication. When my husband had back surgery she was always trying to get him to giver her some of his Lortab, we finally had to resort to saying he was always out. He's off of them now thank goodness. She checked herself into the hospital a week ago today because one of her lungs was partially collapsed. She is also malnourished and can't swallow the massive amounts of saliva she is producing, she is very hard to understand when she talks. I do her grocery shopping for her but I'm not there to see how much she eats. I didn't feel like digging through her trash. We are at the point that we do not know how much is self inflicted or not. My husband didn't have DPOA until this last hospital stay so we never talked to the doctors who were over her care. She is a chronic liar so we don't know what to believe. She's an insomniac and basically lives on her couch. I think the structured environment at the nursing home will be great for her but if she wants to leave I don't know what we can do. She's five blocks from our house, there are other residents there and she is more gregarious, she can smoke if she wants, her pet can visit, she will have someone to cook, clean and do her laundry but she hates it even though she has said she wants someone to do that for her since she can't anymore. My 89 year old mother lives with us now. Once the house is cleaned and fixed up then it can be maintained but I know she can't/won't do it.