I am wondering about a specific friend but any general advice I am sure would be helpful, if not to me maybe someone else.

One of my closest friends is also the person I have probably had some of my worst experiences with alcohol abuse with. All I am say is that we have both been incredibly lucky.

It is actually something we have talked about a good deal. One of the first clues I had that I might have a drinking problem is that it is much easier to see someone else has a problem then that you do. Then I realized we were drinking the same amount, just as frequently, and I would often continue drinking after getting home.

We both agreed that this chapter in our lives needs to end and we need to get it together. The problem I am facing is that we still get together frequently and we still drink together. We drink dramatically less which I suppose is a good thing, but a bottle of wine always makes an appearance. Considering perviously it would have been a bottle of vodka and a bottle of jager, each of us drinking a bottle of wine with dinner seems pretty appropriate.

Is tapering off with a friend a good idea or not?

I posted perviously I was recently hospitalized due to a mental illness and the new medication I am on now just makes me sleepy when I drink with it unlike what I was previously on which probably could have killed me. So from that standpoint I should be able to taper off instead of just stopping completely all at once. But I am wondering more if this is more likely to be helpful going threw this with someone or harmful that we will fall back into old patterns.