Stevie,
I turned 50 last month.
I know your point in posting this story was to caution the younger people who are wise enough to be confronting their dependence sooner, and I'm sure there are some who will remember your words long beyond today. It's a good thing you did - thanks.
But I also want to reach out to you and let you know that I'm here too and it's not over yet, girlfriend. We're still young enough to make a change and have a whole new chapter (short story, novelette, maybe even a book!) in our chronicles.
My tale runs parallel to yours. Your description of your alcoholic/teetotalling family gave me a little shock of recognition - mine is the same. And I wrote a paper about the need to study not just "Adult Children of Alcoholics" (a new concept at the time), but to figure out what the generational impacts are. (What about Adult Children of Parents Who Had Alcoholic Parents?)
Teenage years I did some binge drinking and took a variety of truly hair-raising risks. Laid off for awhile, picked up once I turned legal (18) and was a skilled weekend binge drinker. Stopped and started again numerous times during my 20s, 30s and 40s. At those times I stopped, I recognized I needed to "get in under control" but it wasn't difficult - I just did it. I don't know why it was easy then and it's been so difficult lately. But in the past several years, I have really been wrestling with this beast and I've been losing.
Until now.
Now, today, I have decided enough is truly enough. I'm a strong capable intelligent woman and I can do anything I put my mind to, d*&*it.
Is this thing progressive? Sure seems to be that way. But that doesn't mean we can't put our mighty feet down, hard, and trust ourselves to be able to handle the crap that is sure to come flying at us when we stop numbing everything. We can handle it. I know we can.