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Since the abnormality of the alcoholic's attitudes and behavior during the
drinking career is generally recognized, the persistence or these character
traits after stopping drinking (or the reappearance after an interlude of sobriety)
is equally abnormal.
The term "dry drunk" therefore denotes the absences of favorable change in the
attitudes and behavior of the alcoholic who is not drinking, or the reversion
of these by the alcoholic who has experienced a period of successful sobriety.
From these conditions, it is to be inferred that the alcoholic is experiencing
discomfort in life.
The self-destructive attitudes and behavior of the dry drunk alcoholic are
different in degree but not in kind. The alcoholic, when drinking, has learned
to rely on a deeply inadequate, radically immature approach to solving life's problems.
And this is exactly what one sees in the dry drunk.
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