one of the cofounders of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson, asked his family for 3 shots of whiskey on his deathbed when he was dying of emphysema, and/but they didn't give it to him. he had been 36 years sober
yea if you look it up it's kind of a scissor even in the AA community. some people are like "jeez, if you're about to die, what does it matter" while others are like "no weakness!! good that they protected his legacy" etc
the whole problem is with framing reaching for the drink as “weakness”; it’s fundamentally an exiling move, you’re othering the part of you that sees the drink as the best or only option for dealing with some shit
exiling imposes continual costs, you continually need to edit the exile out of your awareness, meanwhile it does not and cannot die, it just skulks in the shadows growing hairy and wild until maybe one day it comes back as you lay dying
i have no experience with alcoholism per se but i have plenty of addictive tendencies myself and what actually helps me is 1) respecting that a part of me needs the addiction to self-medicate and then 2) dealing with whatever pain i’m attempting to self-medicate