Well I started out as a social HEAVY drinker who finished the job when I got home, as the years passed my drinking became more and more isolated untli the last 5 years of my drinking where 99% of my drinking was done alone in my garage every day drinking.
I drank for 40 years and in looking at my drinking over those 40 years, the experts are right, alcoholism is a progressive disease, as long as one keeps on drinking their alcoholism gets worse, it never levels off, as long as we drink it gets worse.
My first marriage lasted 17 years, I feel my drinking did have an impact on the marriage, but it could not have been all that bad at that time because my 1st wife gave custody of our 3 kids to me. My present marriage was at the 14 year mark and was all but over due entirely to my drinking. As my wife told me, the kids and I will be gone in about a month because I will not let them watch you drink yourself to death.
I only had one DUI in those 40 years, probably should have had a thousand. I never lost a job, but did have some issues due to drinking a few times.
I have been sober over 3 years now thanks to a doctor, detox, AA, & a power far greater then myself. In AA my story is pretty darn common, but there are the party animals who most of the time drank in bars for many years, tons of DUIs, a lot of folks who have been in and out of jail, prison, & institutions.
The one thing we all have in common is basically we are garden variety alcoholcs who all thought we were quite unique. It turns out that we all discovered a common solution for our drinking problems that also turned out to be a great solution when applied to our day to day lifes.
Mixer you are far from being alone, there are millions like you, there are also several million people who were like you in regards to thier drinking who have found recovery in AA and other long term recovery programs.
Mixer the sooner one decides to face thier alcoholism the easier they are able to begin going down the path of recovery, either in AA or some other program.
Why not give AA a try to begin with or some other recovery program?
What do you have to lose?