Just to clarify, I don’t believe he would threaten to hurt himself (in a “I’ll kill myself I’m so sad” sort of way). I think he’d unintentionally hurt himself via alcohol.
His family are very conservatively minded when it comes to mental health, very much “suck it up” and “it’s your own fault” and essentially “we don’t talk about our emotions because that’s uncomfortable”. Being subject to this attitude has very much resulted in the person he is now (which breaks my heart, but it was the same for me tbf). There’s also issues there in general right now, and they don’t have the capacity to support him.
I can hope his friends make an effort this time to support him, but I’m not optimistic. I can’t reach out to them, and anyway they’re of the opinion that he doesn’t have an issue (because they don’t see it). They’ll enable him as much as I already do.
Thank you so much for sign posting me to this. There’s a meeting local to me on Monday and I’ll definitely be going along.
He’s not ready to acknowledge he’s an alcoholic (I’ve said I believe he is, he disagrees, I’ve said that doesn’t change that I believe he is, etc.). And I know you cannot change something you’re not ready to admit is real. I truly hope he manages to get the help he needs following this.