Strength to you, that is a tough one. My dad was a full-on alcoholic and could never kick the habit so I'm all for you managing that particular demon. Best of luck and I hope at the end of 2023 you can look back at a major accomplishment in that domain.
Sorry your dad went through that. I found out the other day someone I occasionally helped out during COVID died. He'd go in and out of detox, and beg for change in between -- I'd mistaken him for an homicide detective I knew of who fit his description, and decided to just play along with the ruse at first since there had been a murder nearby... then later found out it wasn't an act or a sting, he was just very down on his luck and would politely ask people for money so he could walk down to the state store and buy booze.
I found out he died when the guy who used to beat up the other homeless got back out of prison and showed up outside my PO box once again. I gave up on calling USPIS for that kind of thing long ago, and just handle things on my own, the police are absolutely useless unless there's a body lying on the street, and even then it better be a pretty white girl before anyone puts up a poster...
To swing it back to the drinking: it was more about anxiety to be honest. When I was young I'd eat a bunch of donuts at funeral luncheons or whatever, in a bar it was a bunch of Guiness -- I worry that stuff like AA gives people a license to go hog wild if they slip up a bit, I've met people with eating disorders who similarly freak out if they mess up some metric... it's not good to put people into all or nothing thinking, it makes them chase losses.
Anyways, my resolution was to be more diplomatic, and I'm already breaking that, so sorry -- I'm off to try and finish some writing. (Writing code just gets me into trouble, heh.)
