Hi EasternMichael,
I agree with Eveofthefuture. You've got a wonderful girlfriend and a supportive family. If you're going to make the plunge and try to quit drinking, I bet they'll be 100% behind you. It's amazing that they haven't noticed your withdrawals already. Or perhaps they have. Let them know what you're going through.
When I get all the financial details squared away I'm going to go to detox and rehab. My family knows about it and it is so much easier than keeping it a secret. No one has looked down on me. My nephew's wife possibly has cancer. Everyone is just as supportive of me as they are of her.
The more we make a big deal of it and try to hide it, the more alienated and shame ridden we become.
It sounds like you've been hiding it pretty well, but that gets old eventually. Log on here to your heart's content and you'll see that some people make it and some people don't. It's the ones who realize that we're all in this together and talk honestly without keeping secrets who tend to make it, and the ones who think that no one understands who don't.
Sorry if I'm being overly simplistic. There may be some reason why you don't want your family or girlfriend to know. Is there?