by P.L. Hubble

Created on: January 19, 2009

Can an alcoholic ever drink again socially?

The answer to this is a simple and emphatic no. An alcoholic is by definition someone who is addicted to alcohol. Addicted means physiologically or psychologically dependent on a potentially harmful drug. Dependent is defined as having a physical or psychological need to use a drug or other substance. One final definition is alcoholism: dependence on alcohol consumption to an extent that adversely affects social and work-related functioning and produces withdrawal symptoms when intake is stopped or greatly reduced.

Being a recovered alcoholic, I have seen literally thousands of alcoholics who thought that a prolonged abstinence meant that they could now drink successfully or socially. Of those thousands of people, not one person has ever managed to do this. In Alcoholics Anonymous, they teach total abstinence throughout a lifetime by taking one day at a time. In essence, the organization tries to get the alcoholic to focus only on the present day, not looking 20 years into the future. After all, most of us can quit anything for one day, but quitting for 20 years is a completely different story.

Dr. William Silkworth was one of the pioneers of the health field as relates to alcoholism. In a letter he wrote as a preamble to the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, Dr. Silkworth describes alcoholism as a disease.He elucidates on the overwhelming obsession with drink, and the equally devastating compulsion to drink that affects the alcoholic. Recent research has supported his assertions (made in 1935). Scientists have managed to isolate the gene which determines who is an alcoholic, proving that alcoholism is also genetically determined. However, my personal experience in this field suggests that a person can also drink themselves into alcoholism.

My belief, also held by AA, is that once an alcoholic picks up that first drink they are doomed to a time of misery and humiliation. This doesn't necessarily happen in one day, one week, or one month, but it is inevitable for an alcoholic. People who do quit and then manage to drink socially are probably what is called a hard drinker rather than an alcoholic. The difference is that given sufficient reason to quit, such as health or loss of family, a hard drinker can quit. It is not so easy for an alcoholic. Jails, insane asylums, treatment centers, divorce, none of these were enough to enable me to quit drinking. It took a near death experience, and surrender to God before I finally found the strength to quit.

I have been alcohol free for ten years now. Could I safely have one or two drinks today? Possibly. But experience tells me that it is not worth the risk. I don't want to chance the consequences just for a brief taste. Guilt, remorse, self loathing, those are all things that I gave up when I gave up alcohol. Drinking alcohol could very well put me right back into that life again. Its not a difficult choice. Total abstinence.

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