My husband drank 12 to 18 beers a day...10 years out of our 14 years we have been married.He was a functional alcoholic..Not one Dui..always pleasant while drinking..He quit 10 months ago but the damage has already been done..Neuropathy of his feet..so bad he can barely walk..He has had some brain changes which is affecting his problem solving skills..I love him with all my heart and I wish he did not have to be going through this.So even if your partners drinking does not progress ,it will definitely have an affect on his health to the point of regret.

I have been married for 23 years. My husband's drinking started out very moderately. His tolerance for the liquor grew and over the years so did his intake. When stressful events happened this worsened. He lost his job 2 years ago and while he is in an apprenticeship and doing well, the stress and self loathing took him over the edge. His drinking culminated in 2 DUI and 4 accidents in 6 weeks. It ended with REHAB and a forced lifestyle change. It has been 7 months with ups and downs but he is committed to staying healthy and making our life work out. His two choices were sobriety or divorce. My input on this by everything I have read since this started, is that true alcoholism is a gradual tolerance based disease. At some point, most people lose control of the ability to stop successfully on their own because the brain chemically considers the alcohol a survival requirement, no different from water or food. So, please beg him to seek help now. It may not work, it didn't with me, but I hope you can educate yourself on this BEFORE you are blindsided with any further problems. Individual counseling has done wonders for me and I wish I had done it years before this happened. Seek a counselor with addiction experience, they will open up the door and let the light in....

I was married to exAH for 24 yrs. Honestly didn't believe it would progress. His dad was a functioning alcoholic to the day he died, but he wasn't self destructive. In December 2008, my EXAH lost his job. He lived on unemployment and side jobs in all of 2009, coming home later and later from the bars. In January 2010, his mom died and everything went downhill. By July 2010 he abandoned me and the kids for another alcoholic woman, all the while telling me he loved me and had to get his life together. I messed up and allowed him to go back and forth between this OW woman until February 2013. Stopped contact for 1 yr and opened the door to him. Again my mistake. Because I loved the man I married. We talked from March this year until few weeks ago. He again was begging me to give him another change (while still with OW). Told him I would not consider being part of his life while he was with OW, and if he left her for good, I would be friends. With implied thought that get your shit together and we can work out.

Well things do not change. He left her in middle September and we hung around together for about 3 weeks but I would not sleep with him. Not what he wanted so he ended contact again first week of October. AND immediately moved another girl into his house.

I have now completely accepted to person my EXAH has become is now who he is. Type of man that completely turns me off. I have accepted my children have lost their dad. He will never be the man he used to be. The man I married was honest, hated lying, didn't like cheaters, was all about family and close friends.

Now he is a liar, a cheat, has destroyed his immediate family and caused major splinter in his extended family. He is estranged from our oldest daughter (26), mostly estranged from our youngest daughter (20) and not that close to our son (22) but hard to tell with son because he is away in the military so sees his dad some of time he is on leave even though he stays at my house when on leave.

Has it been progressive with my EXAH. Hell yes. No more family man. Complete change in his close friends....all now are losers and heavy drinkers. Liar. Cheater. Drinker.

The man I married was my soulmate. He has died and a shell of the man he used to be now on 2nd live in GF in just over 4 yrs....while telling me how much he loves me and wants to reconcile. Neither I nor my children...or anyone...will be important enough to him to change. His main love is alcohol. He gave up on himself and walked out of marriage. Out of his life he had before.

Very few that get to this point ever get their life under control and only ones I know are the ones that have gone sober.

On the positive side, I do know several functioning alcoholics. They may not be perfect but they don't seem to have the self destructive side to them.

Only you know which is your husband. I would have not given up on my EXAH if he was functioning alcoholic. This man my ex became is a stranger. And by his own words, I know he is miserable but he states he will never quit drinking and I know he will not. Sad.

Your fears are justified. it is likely he will start drinking more -- including drinking in the morning to start theday and then through out the day.

But even if it doesn't, eventually it will destroy him physically.

My AH and I drank regularly during our 25 yr. marriage. He "was" a functioning alcoholic, but I never thought he was one until 5 years ago his drinking progressed to binging on Vodka for days, sober for a couple weeks then all over again. He now only binges on beer, but it's no better. He does drink 24/7 when binging. Getting up in the middle of the night for a beer every couple hours. It's very sad. He has run his home business into the ground. Thankfully I have a great job. He has been hospitalized numerous times for bleeding ulcers, alcohol poisoning. I joined Al-Anon which taught me I have choices and I have chosen to stay for financial reasons (we have lots of assets together) and because he is not a violent or abusive man.