Drinking “moderately” can mean “addictively.” Look to the use.
Margaret Wente, in a The Globe and Mail review of Ann Dowsett Johnston’s Drink, repeats Johnston’s claim that she drank “moderately” for decades, without questioning her use of the term. Yet, she writes: “Both her parents had serious problems with alcohol. She did all the things people do before they quit for good. She made solemn vows to cut back. She kept drinking diaries. She went on the wagon for weeks at a time. She tried the geographical cure by moving to another city. Meanwhile, life threw her a bunch of wrenching challenges, both professional and personal.”
Where to begin? She was a “moderate” drinker for decades? Try again. “She made solemn vows to cut back,” which suggests immoderate drinking. “She kept drinking diaries,” which suggests the same. “She went on the wagon for weeks at a time,” suggesting her drinking must have caused problems or she wouldn’t have tried to stop. “She tried the geographical cure….” No, Ms. Wente, by her own testimony she was a full-on drunk the entire time. And by the way, if life’s “wrenching challenges” caused alcoholism, we’d all be drunks.