Alcoholics lie to themselves more than they do to anyone else.... so, when you take whatever they say surrounding alcohol with a grain of salt, don't do so out of thinking they're intentionally lying to you. There's a reason we say we have to get "brutally honest" when doing our Steps... it means with ourselves. But, as others have said, what you're seeing sounds more like withdrawal than a hangover. IMHO, heavy drinking with hangover = not physically addicted... YET because the mental obsession is there. Heavy drinking with no hangover = physical addiction. Its a progressive disease with the final stage being physical addiction but there's a vast area with varying symptoms before it so keep that in mind when reading what people are describing as, not being a drinker yourself, you may not know what stage they're in.