I've been back and there again, so to speak.

Quit for almost 3 years after twenty years of sixpack plus a day, on the average. (started less, ended up more). Quitting was easy, because I was ready to, and drinking was more like a job than a recreational activity at that point.

This past summer, I started again. After my long period of sobriety, my approach to the nectar is much different. (So is my lifestyle, which didn't include full-time steady employment through my drinking years.)

I started again because I was wondering if I had licked the demon, and could get back to enjoying aesthetic/social aspects which I found I did miss. I didn't want to spend the rest of my life practicing self-denial for its own sake, so in a self-consciously ritualistic fashion I had a couple of Sleemans during the usual high point of the summer, playing in the Blue Skies Square Dance Band. They went down exceedingly well.

After my long abstinence, interestingly, I am satiated after one or two instead of six or eight. Much easier to turn it off. My better half keeps a dubious eye on my consumption, understandably, and so do I. I stick to high-quality beers that please the palate, and generally have a lower alcohol content.

My experiences of the past few years have convinced me that, although there may be an actual physical disease of which alcoholism is a component, most people with a quote drinking problem unquote are _not_ suffering from a disease.

Because AA is so predominant in the public consciousness as the brand name for addiction recovery, I always like to point out a couple of non-12-step resources in these discussions. There are lots of different approaches to defining and treating substance abuse>addiction problems, and since peoples' problems are not all the same, solutions differ for different persons.

http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/non/
http://www.peele.net/

Willie-O