Fatboyy while wanting to help your family is one thing, this has been going on for three years. The Op should not have his life ruined because of this. Sure help his mother out but she needs to pay off her bills. He can't help her if he becomes a bum because no one will hire him, he can't rent an apartment. What if an emergency came up and the mother died, now Op has debt with no benefits and will spend the rest of his life dealing with him mother's addiction. While this is an extreme example, if Op was raped by his father would you say, "It's you family, don't press charges he has an addiction he needs help." Just because his mother might have an addiction does not mean she is exempt from life. If that were the case then none of us would have to pay our bills. You need to grow up and stop blaming the Op and thinking he is a bad person because he is male and it's his mother. Mother's are not perfect.

you didn't read what i said i stated that if it was the other way round, people would think it was bad if the mother pressed charges. family helps family personally, if it meant helping my mum i'd do pretty much anything maybe you don't feel the same way, but that should be the case for most people, surely? plus, addictions can last a lot longer than three years, and they often last for years without anyone realising.

the thing is, it's not some small amount here...the mom has been doing it for 3 YEARS and not payed any of it...can you imagine how much debt you could rack up in 3 years if you were continually maxing out credit cards and getting new ones? What would you propose OP do? Just sit back and pay all this debt off for his mother who was a bitch and stole her son's identity and consequently ****** his life over by ruining his credit?

i really wish people would read what i ******* said properly

I DID READ WHAT YOU SAID. I still think its dumb. I am not saying sue her for all she is worth, but she has to pay it. Op can't and shouldn't have to. Sometimes you can't handle family on your own. Sometimes you need help. If Op is the only one in the family how can he help her get over her addictions, especially if he doesn't know what they are. An alcoholic will only change if they want to. The only way to fix it is to give them a consequence. So what if it was a mom talking about her son, the person needs help. But that costs money. And Op can't force the mom to get better. If someone stole that much money, several credit cards worth, that would be in the thousands. The legal thing is to report it, clean up the Op's credit so he can help his mother, by getting a job and being able to pay for all her treatment--even then that's saying Op had the time and the will power to do this. Don't make this just about family, family does not get to get away with things, that makes it even worse. How can you even say Op should suffer for the rest of his life because his mother just might be greedy.

"if a child did this to their parent in an addiction and the parent sued the child, everyone would say that was immoral" That is no more immoral than ******* up someone financially and stealing their identity.

Six year olds can get credit cards?