Drinking is not a problem until it begins to affect your relationship. Only you can determine if your alcohol romance is interfering with your partnership. The drinker must want to change, or not. The codependent non-drinker cannot wait around for the drinker to change. The people in relationships with drinkers, need to find their own comfort, their own strength if they choose to remain with the drinker or not.
Make a change or learn to be happy with what you have. Change is the only real choice of action. Be IN or OUT of your relationship, but don't nag and complain and then not take responsibility in your own life and your own participation in the relationship.
For fun, drink. For relaxation, drink. As a reward, drink. As an aphrodisiac, drink. Okay, let's not buy any añejo, I said to myself that last few times I've been next door to the liquor store having dinner. In the same way I refrain from buying a pint of ice cream every time I go to the grocery store. Just don't do it.
But at that moment, in the end, I still loved her, still wished it had worked out for us. I still felt the dream we had written for our future. But somewhere along the path, we both turned away from the relationship and towards our previous dysfunctions. I was sad. She was drinking. And we were going out separate ways.
I am not a doctor. I am not a therapist. What I did learn over time: her drinking was taking a hefty toll on my emotional and spiritual livelihood. If your drinking is an issue in your relationship, you may have a drinking problem.
If she drinks the third glass I begin looking for what I'm going to do that evening when she's fallen asleep. If she asks for water, my mind enters into a different set of fantasies that involve her participation. The real joy is that we've had this discussion.
Alone, I am still somewhat of a hungry animal. I contemplate calling my recent ex more frequently than I'd like to imagine. It's a similar story to my previous relationship. Perhaps we can just get our physical needs met without worrying too much about the relationship or the future.
So the passive-aggressive way to ask me to join her for a drink would've been to ask if I wanted a drink. But typically I say no to that question because a "drink" is rarely what I'm thinking of.
There have been several times in my life when alcohol played a role in my own avoidance.