Good on you Surviva. I'm actually far more interested in your story than anything else going on in this thread but I guess it's up to you if you ever want to divulge more.

A good friend of my father's is 64 years old and has been on and off the wagon his entire adult life. He is perpetually either in a state of drinking heavily or not drinking at all. The heavy drinking phases usually start out with him drinking only a little bit here and there, but it escalates rather quickly. He'll reach a point where he's drunk every day by 4pm. Eventually, and this occurs I would say once every 2-3 years, he goes on a bender that usually ends with him collapsing and ending up in hospital. Then, he gets sober for 6 months or so, going to AA meetings and such... then he'll slip... and rinse and repeat.

It's really quite sad, since the guy is a quality human being. Unfortunately his behaviour is difficult to correct since his work is high-paying (works in oil exploration or some shit, aboard ships about 6 months out of the year) and conducive to this kind of start-and-stop alcoholism. But I think, more than that, a deeper personal issue prevents him from reaching a stable middle ground.

Anyway, tangent, etc etc. Just thought I'd share.