>>/42583/
> weeks without a drink

You must be one of those people who do not easily get addicted, there are a lot of people that can drink a lot but never get addicted. If you can go a whole week without drinking you are not an alcoholic, and you are very lucky for that. Average alcoholics cannot stand more than three days sober. At times I can if I must but I'll start "climbing the walls" so-to-speak by the fourth and fifth day. Six days or more without any booze? Can't sleep. I start shaking. I get physically ill. I have panic attacks. Mood swings. Cannot concentrate on anything. Memory is shot. Deep depression. Fits of rage at times, totally unpredictable and can happen over the most minute inconveniences. By the time all that goes away and I can start to sleep again? I will have nightmares and wake up sweating, craving hard liquor. Horrible nightmares of bad things happening to me, or me doing awful things to others I know and care about. When I wake in fright I'd stay up for hours craving a drink. When that settles and passes, and it does in due time, I'd be able to sleep and dream normally. But I'd always have the temptation to start drinking again. During the day or at night, the craving and yearning persists on and on and on. It seems like a never-ending battle, at any point I could break so it's always living on the edge. That's why I had to learn to deal with it and accept the fact I'm an alcoholic. It is a disease and if you ever get it, you'll find out it has devastating consequences.

> drinking also helps with my PTSD

Everyone has an excuse for drinking, even when it's a very rational excuse for doing so. I guess the difference is some get hooked easily, others do not.