Originally Posted by
Reset 
And what's even scaring me more is the possibility that everyone else thinks my quitting is a good thing and perhaps overdue. And that's a sinking realization that doesn't feel too good at all. Thanks.
We alcoholics.. we can get very lost in caring about who knows our dirty little secret. I made a post a couple weeks back something like "hundreds maybe thousands of people know I'm an alcoholic". The thread was about my fears. My fear that coming back to the town I spent the most time in getting drunk I would be surrounded by people judging me. I have been here almost 3 weeks. I have only run into one person who knows I'm an alcoholic at subway. I avoided them and went the other way. If they noticed me, they made no move to interact or acknowledge my presence. The truth is we get so caught up in being this antihero or infamous celebrity, we don't realize that people have their own lives and for the most part don't give a crap.
In the case of your in laws chances are they really do care about you. I was an a hole when I drank. I can tell you the way you talk about your father in law especially, you guys are closer than you might think. Thats a good man that has seen you drunk that many times and still wants to hang out. I can count on one hand the people who have seen me drunk several times and still want to hang out. It would take a ledger to write all the people who have seen me drunk and feel something from a scale of never want to see me again to want me dead if they could get away with it.