It sounds like the alcohol contributed to your hypochondria
[edit] lighten up, for the love of god. I'm taking the downvotes on principle here.
He "often wonders"? Seriously, he should get over it - there's nothing he can do about it at this point, and he's admittedly a highly functional person at an intellectually demanding job.
[2nd edit] Here's a desnarkified version of my original comment:
Life is hard, and you're going to screw some things up, but you compound those mistakes by focusing on what you could have been rather than what you could still potentially be.
It's still a good question: He's asking what extent hard drinking affects memory later in life. You don't need to be snarky about it.
I've read studies in which a brain damaged by long-term alcohol abuse has shown significant recovery after roughly a year of abstinence, though I don't have a citation on hand. You're probably better searching medical journals for that kind of thing, though.
I think it's entirely appropriate to consider the negative effects of previous decisions even if one is unable to mitigate them. Choosing to ignore them seems like an unhealthy attitude which could contribute to future mistakes.
[edit] lighten up, for the love of god. I'm taking the downvotes on principle here.
He "often wonders"? Seriously, he should get over it - there's nothing he can do about it at this point, and he's admittedly a highly functional person at an intellectually demanding job.
[2nd edit] Here's a desnarkified version of my original comment:
Life is hard, and you're going to screw some things up, but you compound those mistakes by focusing on what you could have been rather than what you could still potentially be.