Hello people:

First off, I want to thank everyone here for their genunine support. I
really want to be sober and alive and this Thursday I will attend my first
meeting. I'll go just to sit and listen, but I'll keep from speaking for
now. I just want to soak in the atmosphere.

Anyway, I had a friend (who is not really a friend anymore) who drank every
chance he'd get. As soon as he'd get home from work he'd crack open a beer.
On the weekends he would drink until he couldn't stand anymore. He was
unhealthy, always tired, out of shape, and I had basically sat by and
watched him go into a downward spiral. Maybe that doesn't make me such a
good friend but at one point I had made mention to him about his drinking
when I told him I was considering quitting for good. It almost became World
War III when I made the suggestion that he should quit because to him he
didn't have a problem. I was told to mind my own business and that there's
nothing that he was doing to me that was hurting me. But there was...

I attempted to quit. I made an effort. I stayed off of the booze for a
period of 3 weeks before I ended up back on the wagon. My sobriety irritated
him so much that he would try to set me up with a beer every time he would
go out to the fridge. On one weekend night during that small period of
sobriety, he decided he was going to irritate me to no end and blast his
music to the wee hours of the morning while he would hotbox beers one after
the other. I don't know what his effort was for that, other than he was
acting like a total adolescent (this guy is now almost 40, at that point he
was around 35). Granted, this guy wanted to have everyone around him doing
whatever he was doing (which was usually drinking) or he didn't want to
hang. With all that said and done, he doesn't live with me anymore THANK
GOD! He moved pretty far away from me and we don't really keep in contact
with each other other than the occasional (once every three months) instant
message. This time, I'm sobering up without him around and I believe I'll
have a much better time sobering than when I was living with this jerk.

Now granted this guy was a total idiot, but to me it seems I could draw a
conclusion that he was a problem drinker if not an alcoholic. Not only
that, he's a very condescending alcoholic. I'm just wondering if the next
time I do have some sort of contact with the guy that I might intervene him
about his drinking? Maybe this could point him in a better direction and I
think I could be friends with him too if he would make the move and decide
to go down a better path.

I don't know. Advice? Anyone?

DC