ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!
I started drinking, with my parents consent, when I was 12. Back then ('57) Mom didn't want some fellow to be able to take me out and get me drunk and do what he wanted.
I found recovery 3 weeks shy of my 36th birthday. I don't believe that I flipped into alcoholism until about age 16 or 17, and I have to say that as I started to sober up, clean up, act like an adult, I still felt like a teenager.
I was extremely immature in many facets of my life. Really had to learn how to do lots of different things again, now that I was 'sober.'
I do believe that this is true of most alkies. When they get into recovery they are at the age (emotionally, mentally, spiritually) that they were at when they slipped into alcoholism.
IF they work a program of working themselves diligently, they usually catch up in a year or two.
It is a sad fact but a true fact.
J M H O
Love and hugs,