Back when my boyfriend was still drinking and when I really didn't understand alcoholism, he would "act normal" during family vacations and get-togethers. Act normal = having a beer or two with dinner like "normal people" do. Then, as soon as the other people left, or we got back home, and it was just us two, he would binge. I used to get mad at him because I was naively thinking, "okay, you're not an alcoholic because you're not drinking (or drunk) 24/7, so quit acting like one from time to time". My idea of an alcoholic was, at the time, one who drank every day, like my great-grandfather. Even now when my mom talks about my great-grandfather, who she herself never met because he died before she was born, she'll say, "oh, he was the kind of alcoholic who drank every day". Every alcoholic will eventually end up drinking every day though, unless they quit and stay sober, because alcoholism is progressive.