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Old 01-07-2016, 02:20 PM
  # 9 (permalink)  
dwtbd
quat
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: terra (mostly)firma
Posts: 4,819
I'm don't really come at this from a textbook perspective. From your description I wouldn't /can't say whether or not your BIL is an alcoholic, but he is definitely a drunk. If he expressed any desire to stop drinking but felt unable to, I'd term him alcoholic. Some people drink to get drunk most or all the time and have no desire to do otherwise. I was a drunk and then became an alcoholic and I can certainly attest to the progressiveness of the effects of alcohol abuse.
But as Scott points out, his situation or mine have squat to do with yours.
What are your plans for future alcohol use? If you are planning on figuring out a way to keep it moderate, good luck seriously, I don't mean any ill will. But given what I know of your past drinking it doesn't sound like a wise choice. Left to your own devices you have proven to be a danger to yourself and potentially others, the loss of control may not be in the realm of stopping from one day to another, but individual episodes or benders have been beyond your control. There is really only one true safeguard against that type of drunkness.
You could try and go through life making sure others watch and curtail any behavior that leads to those consequences , but how or why would that be a worthwhile pursuit?
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