I'm Having Trouble with This

I was reading up on this book. Mainly because I was doing some googling about Caroline Knapp, the author of "Drinking, a Love Story." This came up in my feed. I can honestly say that I can't remember the precise time I went from being "almost alcoholic" to "alcoholic." The signs that they point to seem to suggest one is a highly functioning alcoholic. Some of the signs don't even apply to me, as my drinking never interfered with my professional life. I was a master compartmentalizer.  I rarely drove drunk or even buzzed. I felt really strongly about that. On the occasions that I did do it, I felt horribly guilty and paranoid the whole time. I still don't know how my father was so casual and carefree about it. He drank WHILE driving and didn't seem to think that there would be any consequences. He was just plain lucky.

Anyway, I am curious about this book. I find it hard to believe that once someone presents the criteria offered by the authors, that they would be able to cut down, moderate, go back to normal drinking. Maybe it's just my own experience talking. Perhaps, if I were honest with myself 12 years ago, I could have curbed it. But it's not like you sit around with a checklist every time you open a bottle of wine. Many of us just kind of float and sway into dependency. It starts with one drink a day, turns into 2. Perhaps it stays there for sometime, then gradually moves into 3. The operative word is gradual. I am confused by this book, I guess. Although, I do hope it was helpful in getting some people away from the edge and back into normalcy.

By the way, Caroline's book is quite a good read. She, herself, was a fascinating person. She was a writer at the Boston Phoenix for years. I am sure I read her columns often, as I was living in the Boston area almost the entire time she was on staff there and picked up a copy of the paper every month. I see a lot of myself in her. I was very saddened to learn that that she succumbed to lung cancer at the young age of 42. That's how old I am and it frightens me.