god bless you lyriclady.
i have not been in your shoes so i can't really speak to your situation.
the biggest thing i learned from this site is to ask myself whenever a temptation to drink comes up 'would introducing alcohol help'
the only time that i have ever thought it might would be to come out of my shyness a bit but that is the only one. (i still didn't do it....219 days)
i doubt you need to come out of your shyness with your mil. every other time i've asked myself that question the answer was always no.
you have no idea how much the alcohol is adding to whatever problems you are going through. i know i handle familial confrontation 100 times better when i'm sober than when i'm lit up.
just because you stop drinking, it doesn't mean that everything is happy, happy, joy-joy....it's not, but it is so much freakin' better i can't put it into the proper words.
go ahead and stop now...if you're like me, then you can't be a casual drinker and if you're not a casual drinker you're a problem drinker. you'll be very happy with the results if you stop. it gets better every day that you're stopped.