How serious is this situation?
hello everyone, i was hoping you could give me some advice.
i have have been living with my boyfriend for 2 1/2 years. when we first met he would drink about a bottle of whiskey a day plus numerous beers. at first it was fun when we were just hanging out, but when our relationship became serious this started to cause a lot of problems. he is not an angry or violent drunk, more of an embarrassing drunk, who can get very obnoxious and out of control (to other people and sometimes me) (although he thinks he's hilariously funny). our relationship APART from his drinking, is PERFECT. he is kind, sweet, loving, honest, and i am really happy with him.
about a year and a half ago, i told him that his drinking was causing me a great deal of distress and that i was going to an Al Anon meeting. he took me very seriously, responded by quitting drinking for a month, and told me that he would not not drink liquor again, only beer. now a year later, he has kept to his word, and does not drink liquor.
drinking beer takes him longer to get drunk but he gets there eventually... of course. he is actually not drinking as much as he did back then but i still feel as if it is a problem. he drinks every weekend, sometimes as much as 25 or 30 beers (depending on whom he is with. if he is with his hard drinking friends he will drink that much, sometimes less, but usually at LEAST 12-15 beers). he is in a band and his bandmate buys him a 12 pack of beer every time they rehearse (3 times a week) and he usually drinks the whole pack. so on tuesdays, thursdays and sundays he is drinking at least 12 beers and on friday and saturday nights it is usually way more but at least that amount.
the fact that he stuck to his word about not drinking hard liquor is very commendable but he seems to think that this arrangement is now fine, which i am not so sure about. another few things: he is 24, works a regular job (which he is reliable at, misses the odd day every now and again but nothing serious). he pays his share of rent, bills, food etc.
my question is: how worried do i need to be about this situation? he knows that he is an alcoholic, but feels that his not drinking liquor has the situation under control. every so often i talk to him about it, saying that he seems to be drinking more and more, but he assures me that all is ok. does the drinking get progressively worse?