it's very common to drink too much until the age of about 26, then tone it down as 'real life' gets under way. So common, that people who study alcoholism seriously see excessive drinking past that age as one of the indicators of alcoholism.
Good for you for holding down all those responsible jobs whilst feeling relief on the (presumably) rare daws on which you didn't stare into a toilet bowl full of blood and meeting your wife. A lot of alcoholics achieve great feats while drinking self-destructively. I would say if you don't have any problems now, you're successfully practicing controlled drinking, which works for many people. If a gin and tonic for breakfast works for you, that's great.
AA is for people that controlled drinking doesn't work for. The guilt and self-loathing is not part of the AA program. Usually that's what people who've been practising alcoholics bring with them by the time they come to AA. If AA works for them - it has for me - they get rid of guilt and self-loathing. Anyway that's how it is for me.
Oh and I see your point about the nanny state/fundamentalist abstention ideology. It's annoying to have little signs telling us about things which are obvious.
Good for you for holding down all those responsible jobs whilst feeling relief on the (presumably) rare daws on which you didn't stare into a toilet bowl full of blood and meeting your wife. A lot of alcoholics achieve great feats while drinking self-destructively. I would say if you don't have any problems now, you're successfully practicing controlled drinking, which works for many people. If a gin and tonic for breakfast works for you, that's great.
AA is for people that controlled drinking doesn't work for. The guilt and self-loathing is not part of the AA program. Usually that's what people who've been practising alcoholics bring with them by the time they come to AA. If AA works for them - it has for me - they get rid of guilt and self-loathing. Anyway that's how it is for me.
Oh and I see your point about the nanny state/fundamentalist abstention ideology. It's annoying to have little signs telling us about things which are obvious.