As far as the doc I will bet it was his liver enzymes being out of whack that tweaked the doc.
When Poh's problem first became known to me we had gone away for the weekend and she had not had 'enough' vodka and had the shakes and seemed quite ill. I took her to an urgent care place and they ran some tests. When they came in the doc asked her if she wanted me to step out but she said no, he needs to hear this. He told her she was in withdrawal from alcohol and her liver enzymes suggested she had a severe problem. She knew it and hadn't told me but was ready to open up. It was a few weeks later that she tried to quit on her own and nearly died from a heart attack and seizure.
When I got to the hospital and saw her beautiful face all swollen and bruised from the seizure she looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said "I'm Sowwy"... she had almost bitten her tongue off. I think ...nah, I know that's when I decided that if there was any way I could help her get better I would.
Ennui - in your first post I was wondering if he was an alcoholic... 8 years of a pattern that hasn't progressed and wasn't causing 'other' problems in his life...
...then there was your next post, lol. Sounded like maybe I've heard that 387 other times around here and at my wife's AA meetings :-)
Wife and I are now to the point where we can joke about the crazy **** that active alcoholics do. Her 'slip' back in september was when she found my bourbon that I'd hidden.... now, she doesn't like bourbon AT ALL, like any good alcoholic, her preferred poison was cheap vodka. We were laughing about the absurdity of it a couple weeks ago and I griped that nasty lemon flavored $10 for the big bottle vodka can be swilled but for the love of God... don't chug 18 year old single barrel bourbon, especially when it's mine! ;-)
When any type of drink will do that is worrisome. About the only thing that my wife is not tempted by is beer. I asked her if it was the taste or the smell that bothered her and she just rolled her eyes and laughed. Her objection? It would take a 12 pack to get the same buzz she could get from turning that vodka bottle upside down and downing 12 ounces. Beer just wasn't efficient enough to be interesting.