Originally Posted by
tooling 
By the way, the 30 years was from birth up to 30 where I drank responsibly and occasionally. At 30 to almost 40 I abused it tremendously.
Doesn't that blo? lol. I was the same way. Drinking was cool.....occasionally it was bad.......but I still had some control (vs. NO control at the end) up until my mid to late 20's. From then on.....alcohol called the shots. I was done when it was done with me, more often than not.
Like you said though, that stuff in my head didn't all just go away when I quit drinking. It was still there.....and that was the stuff I drank away for 10 years. Those "issues" were still there. Now make no mistake, those issues didn't "make me" alcoholic......but they certainly made it seem like the lesser evil for a long time.