Originally Posted by
Veritas1 
I thought there were 4 types.
In "There Is A Solution" on pages 20-21 there are 3 types of drinkers: the moderate drinker, the hard drinker and the real alcoholic.
In To Wives there are 4 types of husbands described according to their drinking. What I still see described are the hard drinker, who may or may not become alcoholic, and the real alcoholic, along various stages in the progression of alcoholism.
"The problem with which you struggle usually falls within one of four categories:
ONE: Your husband may be only a heavy drinker. His drinking may be constant or it may be heavy only on certain occasions. He spends too much money for liquor. It slows him up mentally and physically, but he does not see it. Sometimes he is a source of embarrassment to you and his friends. He is positive he can handle his liquor, that it does him no harm, that drinking is necessary in his business. He would be insulted if called an alcoholic. This world is full of people like him. Some will moderate or stop altogether, and some will not. Of those who keep on, a good number will become true alcoholics after a while.
Described - heavy drinker/hard drinker, some of whom will be able to stop or moderate, and then others who after a time will not, becoming true/real/chronic alcoholics.
TWO: Your husband is showing lack of control. He is unable to stay on the water wagon, even when he wants to. He often gets entirely out of hand when drinking. He admits this is true, but is obsessed with the idea that he will do better. He has begun to try, with or without your cooperation, various means of moderating or staying dry. He is beginning to lose his friends. His business may suffer somewhat. He is worried at times, and is becoming aware that he cannot drink like other people. He sometimes drinks in the morning, and through the day also, to hold his nervousness in check. He is remorseful after serious drinking bouts and tells you he wants to stop. But when he gets over the spree, he begins to think once more how he can drink moderately next time. This person is in danger. He has the earmarks of a real alcoholic. Perhaps he can still tend to business fairly well. He has by no means ruined everything. As we say among ourselves, "He wants to stop."
Here, the earmarks of a real alcoholic. He displays lack of control. We also see this "lack of control" described many times for the real alcoholic, including immediately after the end of the excerpt on the real alcoholic in post # from page 21 in There Is A Solution: "Here is a fellow who has been puzzling you, especially in his lack of control," and on p. 23-24 describing the real alcoholic, "He has lost control."
THREE: This husband has gone much further than husband number two. Though once like number two, he became worse. His friends have slipped away, his home is a near-wreck, and he cannot hold a position. Maybe the doctor has been called in, and the weary round of sanitariums and hospitals has begun. He admits he cannot drink like other people, but does not see why. He clings to the notion that he will yet find a way to do so. He may have come to the point where he desperately wants to stop but cannot. His case presents additional questions which we shall try to answer for you. You can be quite hopeful of a situation like this.
The progression continues. We already know from p. 30 that "No real alcoholic
ever recovers control." He desperately wants to stop but cannot. Another real alcoholic.
FOUR: You may have a husband of whom you completely despair. He has been placed in one institution after another. He is violent, or definitely insane, when drunk. Sometimes he drinks on the way home from the hospital. Perhaps he has had delirium tremens. Doctors shake their heads and advise you to have him committed. Maybe you have already been obliged to put him away. This picture may not be as dark as it looks. Many of our husbands were just as far gone. Yet they got well.
Where some might describe the earlier husbands as higher bottom cases, here we start hitting what some might call lower bottom cases. Certainly real alcoholics, yet also entirely capable of becoming recovered through the program.
It looks to me like it all lines up.
And you know what else? Bottom line? I think we're all very blessed.