Heavy drinking did change my personality for the worse. I was in my second year before I came around. Now I find myself smack dap in the middle of perimenopause so yeah me. I supplied a link on this section before about a study of alcoholics. 30% of people who abused alcohol are also comorbid with other psychiatric conditions. Also 15-20% of men and 10% of women alcoholics have APS. In the general population only .8% of women have it. Still that leaves the vast majority of us without any disorder except the alcohol abuse.
I think of that when people say "when you stop drinking and the problems go away you are not a real alcoholic." I don't have the mechanism that tells my brain to stop drinking before I poison myself. My mechanism tells me to drink to passing out. To me that is the definition not how screwed up someone is.