Originally Posted by
ColoradoRocky 
Hello again, Harry.
Me, I was a daily maintenance drinker, but I've known wicked bad alcoholics who drank only two or three times a year and managed to destroy their lives that way.
I'd recommend avoiding comparisons. There's always somebody "worse off" than you are, and somebody "better off." Doesn't matter. Geez, I knew a guy who jumped off a 250-ft bridge into the river, lived, spent six months in the hospital, and when he was released hailed a cab and headed straight for...are you ready for this?... the liquor store!
I'd also recommend avoiding tying your drinking or not drinking to any external elements like a job, a wife, a child, or anything else for that matter. Very shaky ground. For me, and a lot of men and women I've known over the years, that's a recipe for disaster.
What happens when the job, the wife, the child don't come through with their end of the "bargain?" Like you get fired or, God forbid, the wife wants a divorce anyway? You start drinking again? No no no.
Stop drinking because you believe in your heart you can't control your drinking.
Whoa...I never thought of that. It was forming up into my head to be sort of bargain. I even asked my wife to give me “one more chance” to get this right. I never thought that tying it to the external event (marriage staying intact) could be risky. Thank you very much for pointing that out. I need to stay sober for me, not as part of some deal.