# Re the "Dry Drunk Syndrome" is this a for real disease or a made up condition? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 21, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-dry-drunk-syndrome-is-this-a-for-real-disease-or-a-made-up-condition/482273 "2009-01-21T06:19:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-dry-drunk-syndrome-is-this-a-for-real-disease-or-a-made-up-condition/482273/1 "2009-01-21T06:19:15Z")
GWB’s personality is sometimes described as being that of a "dry drunk alcoholic’ so I looked it up [Re Dry Drunk Syndrome](http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/info/a/aa081397.htm) Is this really a problem related to alcohol abuse of simply people who were dysfunctional and drunk becoming dysfunctional and sober? > [@](#): > > You even see them in the 12-step rooms… been in the program for years and years and their lives seem to be a constant unmanageable struggle. All those years and they have no more of a spiritual awakening than they did the first time they walked into the room. > > “Dry Drunk” has been described as “A condition of returning to one’s old alcoholic thinking and behavior without actually having taken a drink.” Or as one wise old drunk put it, if a horse thief goes into A.A. what you can end up with is a sober horse thief. Or a personal favorite: you can take the rum out of the fruit cake, but you’ve still got a fruit cake! > > Those who quit drinking but are still angry about it, wind up living miserable lives and usually make everyone else around them miserable too. If it has been said once in an Al-Anon meeting, it has been whispered thousands of times, “I almost wish he would go back to drinking.” ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-dry-drunk-syndrome-is-this-a-for-real-disease-or-a-made-up-condition/482273/2 "2009-01-21T17:33:11Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Is this really a problem related to alcohol abuse of simply people who were dysfunctional and drunk becoming dysfunctional and sober? The reason many people drink is because they are dysfunctional; the drinking isn’t the problem per se; it’s an outer manifestation of an inner sickness. It’s not enough to merely stop drinking; for these people to get better, they need to work on fixing their dysfunction. IME “dry drunk” refers to those who refuse to work on their underlying problems after they are sober. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-dry-drunk-syndrome-is-this-a-for-real-disease-or-a-made-up-condition/482273/3 "2009-01-21T17:42:20Z")
I think a lot of people with mental illness self-medicate with alcohol, and when they get sober, they still have the mental illness that they aren’t getting help for, which leads to them being the same way but just sober. My dad self-medicates with alcohol and you can see the pattern. When he feels depressed, he drinks so he doesn’t have to feel anything. When life is good and he doesn’t have symptoms of depression, he doesn’t drink. On preview, what **NinetyWt** said. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-dry-drunk-syndrome-is-this-a-for-real-disease-or-a-made-up-condition/482273/4 "2009-01-21T18:45:37Z")
The phenomenon of putting the cork in the bottle yet remaining a miserably dysfunctional individual is not at all uncommon. I’ve seen a lot of folks like that. Heck, I’ve been that myself. And miserably dysfunctional non-drinking alcoholics tend to again become miserably dysfunctional drinking alcoholics rather regularly. That’s why AA emphasizes that real long-term abstinence depends on fixing the misery and dysfunction. ---
**Author:** ![HolyFreakingMoly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7ba0ec/32.png) [@HolyFreakingMoly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HolyFreakingMoly)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/re-the-dry-drunk-syndrome-is-this-a-for-real-disease-or-a-made-up-condition/482273/5 "2009-01-21T18:58:11Z")
I believe that addiction is a disease. I have the disease. I’m in RECOVERY. I’d had many periods of abstinence but I was the same miserable, obsessive, compulsive, self centered, not accepting reality person I was while I was using so I was just an addict who was currently drug free. Today I have a program. I am involved and participating in my recovery. I belong to a 12 Step fellowship patterned after AA. I do the stepwork, I have a sponsor, I sponsor people, I do service, in the fellowship and outside. I am not the same person I was when I entered recovery. I don’t think the same way, don’t react the same way, don’t believe the same things I used to believe. So, yes, “dry drunk” is a real “condition”… An addict without drugs, and alcohol is a drug, is still an addict. An addict in recovery is doing some work on the process of changing.