Vividserenity. People like to casually throw around the terms "always" and "never" in order to exaggerate things. However at 46, I have found that these terms apply to the following statement with absolute certainty:
Alcolholism always gets worse. It never gets better.
And God knows I've tried every conceivable way imaginable to get around that simple fact. Every single attempt ended in disastrous failure with catastrophic consequences. It didn't matter if I was a early stage alcoholic early in my drinking career or late stage chemically dependent alcoholic at the end of my drinking career. It didn't matter how long I quit for either (one time I quit for 6 1/2 years). My drinking would quickly pick up exactly where I left off if not worse. I know this fact is not fair and may seem counter intuitive but I have never even see or heard of a single exception to this rule. Ever. Please let me know if you ever find an example of someone who says "I used to be an Alcoholic, but after I did ' fill in the blank ' I have now been a sucessful normal drinker for 'X' number of years". They don't exist and have never existed. However good luck with your experiment on yourself and your future. Maybe you will be the first one.