Whenever I hear that someone is “hiding” liquor bottles, empty or not it’s a big red warning flag of a secret drinker. If he’s admitted that he’s been drinking alone at night when you are not there for the past 2 years, you can bet it’s probably longer.
This is something that occurs to me also. In my experience, what I found or what XAH admitted to generally turned out to be the tip of the iceberg, once time had passed and more was revealed.
I'd also be leery of accepting explanations about "stress" as a reason for drinking. We
all have stress in our lives; we
don't all secretly down a pint or more of vodka "to relieve the stress" and then hide the evidence. There are many, many posts here about the endless variety of "reasons" given by the A's in our lives for why they drink, but in every single instance that I can remember, that "reason" has been an excuse, a way to blame someone or something else for the unacceptable behavior, a way to deflect attention from the A.