Willie-O, while my experience with drugs and alchol (one alcoholic parent, one prescription drug dependent and hypochondriac parent, and my own excessive drug and alcohol lifestyle until my mid-20s) is different than yours, I will wholeheartedly agree with your point about the AA propoganda about alcoholism as a "disease." There is no scientific evidence which corroborates or substantiates this claim.

I went a few years without doing any drugs and alcohol. Not because of any conscious effort to quit, but because I was doing a lot of gratifying work and living a very gratifying life, which happened to be around a lot of teetotaler reformed alcoholics. The worst aspect of that part of my life was putting up with the dry drunks claiming they were in recovery "for life."

I rarely drink hard liquor anymore, although I enjoy the occassional margarita in hot weather when at a party or out on the town. I am a religiously healthy drinker nowadays (there is a lot of heart disease in my family). That means I have one or two glasses of red wine or a beer with dinner. But nowadays, I never drink the cheap stuff, as I can't tolerate it. I drink Sam Adams and quality reds, and that is it. I rarely "drink socially" because I don't like driving under the influence, although I do still drive after a glass or two of wine with a meal. I never just drink when I go out. Never. It is always consumed with food.

My alcoholic father and my alcoholic step-mother (they met in treatment) marvel to this day about my ability to quit the booze on my own, considering the "family history." I've totally rejected the AA disease model they ascribe to (your name brand recovery analogy is dead-on, IMO). And I admit to having little patience with the alcoholic myths perpetuated by an ever-expanding recovery industry making billions off people I perceive as having self-control problems, not a disease.

I mean, it is kinda like the Weight Watchers thing, isn't it? Ever since insurance began covering recovery and treatment centers, and we began to have designer detox centers and the celebrity recovery stories being marketed by savvy PR agents being perpetuated as cultural myths, I spend little time worrying about offending manipulative personalities masking themselves as addicts and alcoholics.

I have plenty of compassion for people's suffering. But when recovery junkies find my last nerve just to test it with their "poor pitiful me" defenses, I just tune them out and walk away. I know they can always find an appreciative audience and sympathetic ears. I spend my compassion on people who are willing both to help themselves and others, not on people who are bent on dragging everyone down into their personal hell by creating crises for others, and then turning around and using sympathy and compassion ploys to keep everyone down in the hole with them for company. Misery loves company, after all. And will go to almost any lengths to find some.