Celtic, I don't really know how to answer you on this idea of being a normal drinker for 10 years, before your problem was evident. My problem was evident in 1996. Before that I drank more like a partier, seemingly more normal back then, because there was more than alcohol to life. I wouldn't have been able to revert to that person in the 90s. That person would only restart the journey anyway, only much more quickly. In fact, I noticed in 1996 that I had gone from rarely having alcohol in 1995 to every day in 1996, after a relocation. The difference was like going from a quiet stream to a loud waterfall. I moderated the situation during another relocation in 2002 and then once I had everything all lined up, I dropped down the Falls again. People aren't exactly the same, but I am skeptical when I hear you talk about the decade of being a normal person. I'm stuck with the beauty I've got now, the other person is gone and was really an evolving person with a problem to begin with. It just didn't manifest itself in an everyday frequency, it was in its adolescence. That's how alcoholism works to me.
For December15, sorry, I don't go along with the counter-indictment on the smoking. Smoking is a companion substance for many drinkers, but keeping up with the smoking is not the same as keeping up with the drinking in my case, there is a huge divide there.