Learn2Live

You can't. And it doesn't matter how you answer it anyway because he is not going to believe you and there is another defense waiting just behind the one he gave you, ad infinitum.

Is this a question?

It helps me to think of alcoholism this way: Alcoholism is a disease. And the disease is like a parasite that you CANNOT kill. It invades the body of the alcoholic when the alcoholic takes his first drink. Like a teeny tiny worm at the bottom of a tequila bottle. And once that alcoholic drinks this parasite, the parasite starts to slowly grow. The parasite feeds and survives on alcohol only. And after some time, the parasite grows into a monster that takes over the alcoholic, directs his every thought, decision, word, behavior, and action. The monster controls the alcoholic and his life. Which then controls or affects an average of FOUR other people, including us. (Those who are closest to the alcoholic are the most affected). The alcoholic's thinking and motivations become solely the consumption of more and more alcohol.

You cannot reason with, or teach, an active alcoholic. And you cannot make the alcoholic stop drinking or change his behavior, his thoughts, or his motivations.