Can a recovered alcoholic ever drink again?

Question by Shannon: Can a recovered alcoholic ever drink again?
My dad used to be a violent alcoholic; I’m talking emotional and verbal abuse, breaking things, being VERY angry and frightening. He went to rehab more than once. He also was a cocaine addict. He finally became clean and sober when I was 12. I am now almost 25. My parents finally divorced a few years ago and my dad remarried. As far as I knew, he had not had a sip for 13 years. Well, his birthday party was yesterday in the early afternoon. He drank STIFF screwdrivers all day and he got absolutely trashed. He was “life of the party” drunk, telling stories, being ridiculous. He slurred his words and often misspoke (he called his mother his grandmother and he called her my great-grandmother and was like “Wait!! Wait… that’s not right! She’s…yeah she’s my grandmother.”) It was the elephant in the room for those of us who knew about his past, but many people (including his new wife) have NO idea. Should I be worried about this? Is he spiraling back into this addiction? Or do recovered alcoholics have the ability to drink again without relapsing?

Best answer:

Answer by Christopher
I’m certainly no expert but every recovered alcoholic I’ve ever known has done his or her best to never touch another drop. From what I understand once an addict always an addict. It’s either you have it under control or not, you’re never really recovered.

Maybe he is just too embarrassed about his past so he socially drinks around his new wife, but it sounds like he took it a little far in this situation so maybe he is on a slippery slope.

I would look into this further. How did he get past it the first time? Was he or is he still part of a support group of some kind? Try and get in touch with anyone that helped him the first time around. Good luck.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!