Anonymous wrote:No happy person drinks to excess. No happy person drinks daily.

Lots of people can fake it, and many do (for a time). The fantasy of functionality is one of the biggest mindgames of addiction.

+1,000 - widow of an alcoholic

Anonymous wrote:

Alcoholics in recovery are extremely happy.

I'm glad this has been your experience. This is not what I have observed. My recovered friends have issues and are not leading ordinary, happy lives though it's nice drinking isn't adding to their problems. I'm glad they went to AA. They are devoted to AA, have made being a recovered alcoholic their identity, seems like their whole identity. I don't see them moving-on or past that.

And the alternative is dying at age 50 from alcoholism like my brother? AA is free and there when nothing else works.

Dr. J, was an alcoholic in recovery for decades. Yes he was happy once he started working recovery programs.

When he was a younger man untreated alcoholism caused him to be fired from a top tier medical teaching hospital, and caused him to lose his family and his kids.

Once he had recovery under his belt the only doctor job he could get was in the emergency room in a hospital in a dirt poor county. He worked his recovery program for decades and was very respected in the area.

Alcohol use increases anxiety and increases depression.

During his last 4 years or so Dad started drinking at 10:00 am and drank all day. He ate very few calories.

I would not say he was happy.

For decades he was not a mean person but for the last several years he was meaner than a snake.

His disease started drinking 1 cocktail every night when he got home from work.

I don't know. To me it's just another form of gluttony. My dad's health is failing and he is angry about it, yelling at the doctor that "this isn't fair! I never drank or smoked." He ATE himself into this problem. But we look at over eating totally differently from over drinking. Just like cigarette smokers are now pariahs but every mom enjoys their weed gummies.
All of it shows a lack of self control which I don't think has anything to do with a person's happiness. My dad has been extremely happy eating thousands of calories a day.