Originally Posted by
daredevil 
Your line of thinking reminds me of a SMART exercise (Hierarchy of Values): aligning your values and beliefs with your behaviors so as to avoid cognitive dissonance. But three years ago, before drinking became a solitary and daily activity, I was just fine drinking once or twice a week to excess at my favorite establishment.
In other words, there was no divided self, so that argument leaves open the possibility for future drinking.
Seems to me that swearing it off forever is the only away to obviate the mental gymnastics endemic in the daily game against addiction. It's a choice between quitting once or battling the beast daily, which takes more headspace than I care to give it.
Fair enough - but 1. you strike me as the kind of person for who mental gymnastics are a natural way of being. Semantics are important for people like us. Unless of course your gymnastic routine is just an excuse for possibly drinking again.
2. Alcoholism truly is progressive. I don't buy a lot of the tropes thrown around here and elsewhere, but I do very much believe in that. So whatever your drinking practice was for years that didn't cause conflict at time is simply irrelevant now. That's like a morbidly obese person saying that their love of ice cream as an adolescent was just fine, didn't cause a divided self, which leaves open the possibility for future consumption. Who cares that we indulged in booze at some point in the past (regardless of the distance of the time), things are changed man. Not a good argument, and irrelevant anyhow.