Hi Ronan,
Originally Posted by
Ronan 
This is it really. The point of the first post is to give a newcomer the point of view of someone else so they can relate their problems to something.
I know it was not your intent but I would guess that there are people who have come to this forum to ask themselves that question, am I an alcoholic? and they have read the first post and they have not lost their jobs, relationships and mind like that person talks about and have now come to the conclusion that they cannot possibly be alcoholic.