Originally Posted by
bchris02 
There are many stories of people who were heavy drinkers in their younger years but learned to drink moderately later in life. Their drinking habits may have looked like alcoholism, but today they can have two drinks with dinner and stop with that. Their tolerance has also returned to normal after being much higher when they were drinking heavier. For them, it's safe to say they did not cross the point of no return.
That was me in my mid-20's through around 40. I drank a lot in college and built up a tolerance, but it was weekend binge drinking only, and once I left that environment I was a light occasional drinker with much lower tolerance for years. Over those years my drinking did slowly escalate to weekend binges again, but I was past 40 before it became an addictive thing.
I don't buy into the stages either.
We humans like to create divisions and boxes for people and things, but they can lead us astray when we're really looking at a smooth continuum. If drinking is a problem for you, stop and it will stop being a problem, and meanwhile you will enjoy life on it's own terms.
