[Old Professer]

Maintenance drinking is different from binge drinking; rarely does one indulge in both. In the maintenance phase most drinkers function at a higher level than those times when they consciously abstain; in some cultures whole generations grow up, reach maturity and live to old age in a maintenance state, but generally this is limited to more primitive people who more or less live off the land or have families with wealth or holdings.

Once a maintenance drinker graduates to the blackout stage, he or she is now beyond the clinically safe "cold-turkey" point.

Those who indulge heavily and then make a decision to abstain or even to try and quit and fall back can often, through will, stop altogether with constant abstention but the key word here is constant, the most dangerous stage for this type of person is the point where he goes public and begins to brag about his achievement for it is at this point that his will is most tested and needs reinforcement.