Originally Posted by ThomPom

I think it is a MAJOR difference between moderate (cut back) your drinking on your way to sobriety, or if you try to moderate after periods of sobriety. In other words: Going from full blown addictive beahviour to moderation is a step forward, once sober, its a step backwards. No doubt about this: sobriety is the ultimative (and only) goal.

Moderation helped me big time. Here is why: On may ways to sobriety I was just not “strong” enough to stop it all of a sudden so I cut back step by step, really deconstructed my alcoholic behavior in a proactive way. I just drank as much – a minimal effective dose, so to speak – I needed to numb myself or get in certain emotional state. Before, I would “just drink”. What also turned out to be useful during that phase of moderate drinking, was, that I learned, what the reason behind my drinking was. Of course, I had to differentiate from the moments of pure addictional behavior.

Then, after learning to moderate (emotionally) over the course of 18 month, I was able to - after two attempts (learning lessons) of each three weeks- to stay sober and be happy for now 6 month, going strong.

So, IMO it it might be not useful to generalize the verdict on moderation. It helped me. But yes, I agree, moderation wont work once sober. It wouldn't work for me NOW, but it has worked as a pre-phase towards sobriety. And it may work in that context only for specific types of alcoholics, not the chronic alcoholics, nor the phase out drinkers, but those with emphasis on emotional addiction.