Gardener, my opinion is that you can be a dry drunk either with or without AA. One of my family members is not a dry drunk, but I feel my X is. By that, I mean he is very prone basically constantly prone to addictive behaviors.
I understand your points and I have 4 thoughts:
1) 12-Step has also co-opted the term dry drunk in that it originally was a term used to describe severely drunk people who actually needed detoxification (from the inTOXICation (it is, in its way, poison) before any kind of re-hab. A Dry Drunk was someone who still displayed all the symptoms of being intoxicated well into - and after - the detox.
2) Addictive behavior/tendency/whatever (if it's not one thing, it's another) is a) common, though often harmless (billiards) and b) should be monitored closely as it is often a precursor to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
3) Do the research. Look up the term "Dry Drunk" on as many sites as you can One "tip off" is the person is indecisive(?). Look 'em up. There are so many definitions, characteristics and "symptoms" that either we are all dry drunks or no one is.
4) It is also an insulting, derisive label and even AA and other 12-Steps admit this. It is meant as an insult.
Enjoyin' the debate...
Gardener
"My soul, be satisfied with flowers, With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them In the one garden you may call your own." Cyrano deBergerac
