Functional?
Happy Labor Day, everyone...
The short question is, how long can one be the so-called functional alcoholic? The alcoholic in question has not had a period of sobriety greater than a few days, and had been drinking very heavily.
I wrote over a month ago that I was debating what to do with an old friend/romance interest who is an alcoholic and was just completely unreliable. Three weeks ago we agreed that as long as he is drinking, all he has to offer me is hurt, and that's not what either of us want. We decided to stop contact and he can reach out when he decides he is serious about recovery. I do miss him, of course, but I realize this is the only option for the moment.
As of May, he had been in in-patient rehab at the behest of his employer, but afterwards still did not think he had a problem. In June, he lost his job, and conceded that perhaps he was an alcoholic, but that he would "rather die than stop drinking." In July, he had periods of a few days of sobriety interspersed with a few episodes of alcohol poisoning. In late July, he finally came to the realization that he wanted to stop drinking. I think he thought that once he put his mind to it, it would happen. In August, he pulled it together enough to get a new job.
He now seems (or when I last saw him) to still want to stop drinking, but isn't there, and seems pretty crushed that he hasn't been able to stop. He realized the pain he was inflicting on those he cared about... so instead of stopping drinking, he's basically cut those people out of his life as much as possible. He has days of not drinking, but I get the definite impression those are in the minority.
Is it possible for someone who was drinking to blackout daily to go back to being a functional alcoholic? If so, how long could he keep this up? It seems like he was sooooo close to bottom before getting the new job, and now that he has the job, he's able to himself that things really aren't that bad. I don't want to see him unemployed again, but I just don't get how he'd be able to focus on getting sober (even if he tried) with things falling back into place.
Thanks in advance, and hope everyone had a good holiday weekend!