Can alcoholics ever drink socially again?

[Heddi]

Hi. I'm Heddi and I'm a nursing student. I'm not an alcholoic, although my family is filled with them--some of them were able to combat their addictions, some not.

I'm asking this because I'm taking a psychology class and one of the books we're reading is "What You Can Change..And What You Can't" By Martin Seligman.

In it, he goe through a littany of things that are changeable (depression) and things that aren't (sexual orientation)

He has a chapter devoted to alcoholism as an addiction, and says that alcholics that go through successful therapy can, in some instances, be 'sober' yet still engage in social drinking without falling back into their addictions.

I was curious about this. He lists studies that followed alcoholics from youth (before they were alcoholics) through adulthood--I think the study was conducted over 50 years. And several of the alcoholics were able to stop drinking alcohol addictively, but still drink socially without falling off the wagon.

This interested me because, as I said, I have people with many addictions in my family:

My mother is addicted to pain pills

My grandmother is addicted to gambling

Her brother was an alcoholic, although now he's more of a dry-drunk

Her mother (my great-grandmother) was an alcoholic for several years and only stopped after the Dr told her her chirrosis would kill her if she drank anymore

Many members of my family are compulsive over-eaters.

Also, Seligman claims there is no such thing as an addictive personality---I don't know if I agree with this. I've seen my once-alcoholic uncle turn into a compulsive overeater and compulsive sports fan. So much that both interrupt his life in the way that alcohol did before he quit cold-turkey.

Aside from my family, I've known several alcoholics as either friends or co-workers, and none of them were able to socially drink after sobriety. One drink would lead to 10, would lead to blackouts and struggles with sobriety all over again.

What are your thoughts on this? I'm interested to know because I think that, in many cases, personal experiences are much more relevant than broad, generalized studies.

I hope you don't mind this question, but I'm honestly interested in whether this is psychobabble (I disagree with much of what he says in this book), or is actually rooted in fact

Thanks so much

hed