A rehab drinking problem might be the best solution for anyone who is seriously struggling with alcohol.  If their life is out of control and they cannot seem to put the bottle down on their own, then rehab is probably the best solution for them.  The question is: “Are they willing to go?”  Most people with a drinking problem will stay stuck in denial for years and years before they will accept their problem on a deep level and agree to take action to fix it.

Drinking problems are characterized by people who have problems when you give them too much alcohol.  But some people like this don’t really have a problem putting the bottle down.  They can take it or leave it.  They can walk away from it.  But the true alcoholic has a compulsion to drink, and they will obsess over it as well.  They might not do so every day, but they do it enough where it becomes a major obstacle in their lives.  And once they start to drink, they cannot stop under their own power.  This person has pushed the limits beyond having a mere drinking problem and is actually addicted to alcohol.  This is what defines an alcoholic.  Being unable to resist the first drink at certain times, and being unable to stop once they have started drinking.

Now of course the alcoholic can fool themselves and stay in denial for years and years, because at certain times they actually can resist the first drink.  They might challenge themselves to do so one day, and decide that they will not drink for the whole day no matter what.  And they actually do it without drinking.  Yippee for them.

Then the alcoholic might be at a big wedding or something, and they might challenge themselves to control their drinking.  They will sense the possibility that they could drink too much and turn into a real problem, so they vow to only have, say, 3 drinks at the maximum.  And they might actually pull it off with no problem that day.

These “small victories” can actually happen for the alcoholic, and thus keep the person stuck in denial.  They had some small success at controlling their drinking or abstaining (through gritted teeth), so they think that they are cured of their problem.  In fact, all they did was put forth a massive, temporary effort that is not sustainable.  And that is the key and that is why they are an alcoholic: because their efforts to control their problem are not sustainable.