The "functional" addict often "functions" by leaning on enablers (i.e., friends and family who help the alcoholic to maintain the charade that he/ she is able to keep job/ home/ etc. in order). My sister, who just died from alcoholism, was a tenured professor and taught at the same university for 12 years. A network of people who loved her, including me, her close friends (also faculty) and some students kept her going throughout these years, until she finally deteriorated to the point of death. She was about to lose both her job and her driver's license. I now believe that this network kept her from bottoming out and ultimately from wanting to maintain sobriety. Not being functional any longer is a prerequisite I've heard many alcoholics needed to find the desire for sobriety. Perhaps "functional" when referring to addicts should be used as a warning rather than as a sort of praise, as it sometimes is?