An obession with alcohol....

A co-worker and I were sitting in her office and the topic of alcohol came up. I remarked that since I've stopped drinking I've started to notice how many people make plans around alcohol. (I did too, and you don't notice that aspect about yourself while you are doing it). She said she knew what I was talking about. She and her husband often attend get togethers in their neighborhood. These are usually cookouts with a lot of alcohol in attendance. By the end of the evening she said, people are drunk, some are sleeping etc... a real rowdy bunch and she went on to say that rarely do they plan if ever an event that doesn't include alcohol. If someone says they are going to a wedding the standard reply is "hope they have open bar all night", or if they are getting together for movies it's "bring the alcohol". She wonders if they can ever plan anything that doesn't have alcohol involved. I too have noticed that all weekend plans seem to include drinking, stopping after work and drinking is quite common and I know one lady at work who thinks a balanced meal is a bottle of wine and cheese and crackers. Now I know I did all these crazy things too but I have a hunch that social drinking has taken a turn for the worse. I mean if you are suppose to have no more than one to two glasses of wine...how do you explain people drinking during the week and on the weekends, bottles of wine. As an alcoholic whose whole system began to crave and need the effects of alcohol to get her during the day I'm beginning to wonder about what is acceptable for social drinking? I think at one time alcoholics were more easily recognizable, but now people drink quite heavily and feel that there's no problem as long as they take a day or two off in between. To me that blurs the lines a bit. I bet if people wrote done exactly what they consumed in a one week period they would be shocked. Sort of like recording calories, you never think you are having too much until you actually look at the exact amount, and it can be shocking. I used to panic at certain situations if I knew there wasn't alcohol being served. I was always ready for a good time but in the last few months of my drinking it was self medicating and the fun had long ended. I'm worried as a nation that people are using the "highly functional" part to negate the amount of drinking they actually do. And TV shows and movies send us messages that it's young and trendy to drink all the time. This could be me just unraveling a thread, but I think there's more to it than that....what do you think?