I am wondering, if an alcoholic doesn't drink, do you think their brain ever recovers or is it permanent damage?
I'm a recovering alcoholic sober 20+ years, all of it in AA. There's a saying: "if you take the alcohol away from a drunken horse thief you have a horse thief." If you only put down the drink then you'll have very angry dry drunk. What I learned is that if I don't change I'll drink again. And I learned that I am responsible for everything I say and do. The Big Book says that "drinking is but a symptom...." of our sickness.
The traits of an alcoholic: enormous ego combined with low self esteem; self-involved, self-centered, grandiose with the emotional level of a teenager. "His majesty the child..." Now I'm sober and if I want to get better I have to work like the devil on the steps and in therapy. And there are wonderful sober alcoholics with happy family life and successful jobs. There are also angry dry drunks. What is involved in recovery is dealing with the wreckage of the past, doing amends and dealing with the character defects. It's all about choice. Each day I choose to drink or not drink; to tackle my problems or not; to be responsible or not. Recovery is up to the alcoholic; the person who chooses that path is driven from something inside.
Alcoholism is progressive and you've just witnessed it. People don't start out falling down, daily drinkers but they eventually wind up that way.