I'm not an expert but it appears to me that Ryan was a "maintenance" drinker. He needed alcohol daily. An episodic drinker typically can go for days, weeks, or even months or years without drinking. But once the drinking starts the episodic drinker suffers from the same condition as the maintenance drinker, namely a well founded fear of the unpleasant and dangerous effects of a detox. The episodic drinker may suffer less bodily damage depending on the spacing, frequently and duration of the binges.
W.