Originally Posted by
ay100 
I respect everyone's opinion here. But here is my 2 cents on the subject. Every individual who has problems with drinking does not necessarrily an alcoholic or in other words there are degrees to alcoholism. Some can not go through a day without having an "eye opener" early in the morning and others drink only at night. There are also "binfge" drinkers or "problem drinkers". While I agree alcholosim is a disease and it is a progressive one that eventually wrecks the individual's life, there are some individuals who after years of drinking senseless moderated thier drinking and remained within the boundries of moderation.
If I can give a parallel example to this is as follows. Cigarette smoking is as bad as alcoholism and highly addictivte. A physical addiction like alcohol. There are some people who smoke on and off. I know a few people who smoke 3 months and do not pick up a cigarette for another 6 months or a year. (And yes they inhale). I know sevarl people whom drank as much as an alcoholic and considered as alcoholic by everyone, stopped binging and moderated thier drinking as normal people.
So what I am getting at is this: It is a YMMV thing, it is the strength of the will power. Let's do not categorize everybody in one class. Some individuals can successfully moderate.
For someone who is hoping they arent an alcoholic,...you sure think you know all about alcoholism. Their arent any "types" of alcoholics. Only alcoholics. You tell yourself this so you can believe you are not one. I dont blame you though,...as we all went through this phase. There are, however, "stages" of alcoholism. The first stage is where we get into minor troubles with our drinking and tell ourselves that its no big deal,....everyone has this happen once in a while or everyone drinks and drives, and we just happened to get caught. In the 2nd stage, our family and friends begin to notice our drinking as a problem and they may or may not even say anything to us yet (causing us to believe that if nobody says anything, it must not be a problem). If they DO say something, however, we go into damage control mode. We deny, deny, deny. Close to the end of the 2nd stage, or beginning of the third, we, deep down, KNOW we are an alcoholic, but, we tell ourselves "Thank God Im a 'functional alcoholic' ". We tell ourselves that since we get to work everyday, dont drink in the morning, havent lost any friends or family yet, havent lost our license to drive, or home, that we must be able to manage it. That is the biggest lie we tell ourselves, next to telling ourselves we arent alcoholic,... in this disease. Functional Alcoholics,...DO NOT EXIST. It is not a "type" of alcoholic. It is a "Phase" of alcoholism. Every single one of us had a point in our drinking careers where we could still say that we still had our job, home, family, relationships, license, no DUI's, and no other consequences from drinking. ....YET...
Then we did. It happens like a landslide. A tidal wave. We cross deeper into Third Phase Alcoholism and we are no longer 'Functional'. This is where friends and definitely family, begin to mention our drinking to us. They even sometimes plead with us. Ultimata are issued. We lose respect from others. The job goes downhill or altogether. DUI's enter our lives. Alcoholism grabs us my the ears and violently shakes us into seeing what we have become. Once we see, we try to picture our lives without drinking. We cannot. Nothing will be fun. Watching others drink and have a good time will "kill us". We MUST find a way to still be able to drink. Thats where Moderation Management comes in. Thats where we think "ANYTHING,....ILL TRY ANYTHING,...as long as I can continue to drink".
Thats where we lose many. But, that is also where we gain alot of people who FINALLY surrender. They let go of that rope and just fall. Its just too bad that some alcoholics prolong their torture and suffering by adding on that extra time to their active addiction by "telling themselves" that they can moderate. Alcoholics never drank in moderation, because thats not how we like to drink. Drinking one or two is pointless to an alcoholic. What makes an alcoholic think that ,...yes,....I think, yes,...NOW I wil be cool with only one? I will tell you. FEAR. FEAR of NOT drinking.