Thanks. Yes it was certainly the hardest thing I had ever done, living that lifestyle of drinking secretly. I did try to keep up with appearances so most people did not suspect me from that, more from the secrecy, not showing up, wildly fluctuating motivation and work performance etc. But I am not aware that anyone suspected drinking per se, more just that I was very weird and something must have been wrong. I did very well with the hiding and I am not aware that anyone had ever knew, except one person that I was sharing my apartment with for a while. I hid it from her also for the most part but sometimes that was just not possible and she confronted me once. I of course lied at first and denied it but then could not carry the guilt and admitted it to her. It was just one ~30 min conversation and never more. I did not find the confrontation helpful, it just made me more careful and secretive about hiding.

I also admitted it once to a work colleague, who was affected by it because of my messy performance. She never guessed it (at least did not tell me) but she knew I had bursts of serious depression and anxiety. I told her about the drinking when I already quite successfully. She was very understanding and supportive.

People do organized interventions, but I don't think most of those are useful if the addict is not ready to change the habit. I definitely can't imagine it being very comforting/helpful from a client, but perhaps this is just me. In general, with addiction, really no amount of support and compassion can help or change anything if the addict is not ready to quit and seriously work on it.