pjw I can not tell you that you do or don't have a problem with drinking, that is for you to figure out, I will share the following with you.
My name is Martin and I am an alcoholic. When I first started drinking it was great!!! My God, everything that I had fears about or was nervous about dissappeared! I was the man! It was a feeling of immediately fitting in, belonging!
I had no idea then that I was an alcoholic, I now know that alcoholism is a progressive disease, in my case the progression was slow..... or so I thought!
Part of alcoholism is developing a tolerance to alcohol, in very simple terms I could drink every non-alcoholic out there under the table with ease and every one including myself thought I was the man!!!! In reality it took more and more booze as time went by for me to get the "FEELING".
Eventually I reached the point where I could not get that "FEELING", oh I might have it for a few minutes and then the next thing I knew I was drunk! My drinking started causing all kinds of problems in my life.
I started trying what every good alcoholic I know does, controling my drinking, I have found out that normal people do not control thier drinking or even think about controling thier drinking..... Why? They can take it or leave it.
I tried to quit and it turned out I had crossed that invisible line in alcoholism where quitting is no longer a matter of choice, I had crossed into the stage of alcoholism where I had to drink.
Alcoholism is a progressive disease, it never gets better, the progression of the disease can only be hatled by total abstenance, it progresses with every drink. I an alcoholic quits drinking for 10 years and starts again the disease will pick right back up where it left off.