Hi,
I’m a 41 year old woman and my partner is the same. She used to have a couple of glasses of wine or beer on an evening, occasionally a bit more but it was always quite normal ( poured into a glass, drunk at a regular pace) However, about a year ago she started drinking brandy. It started as a bottle a week, a few shots in a glass a day and progressed to that plus hiding bottles in cupboards that she knows I don’t go into. Fast forward to now and she only drinks alcohol free beer in front of me, but hides gin in cupboards and drinks anything from half a bottle upwards in glugs from the bottle when she goes to the toilet. She thinks I don’t know she’s doing it. Bang on the dot of 4pm every day. I’ve asked her why around 4:30pm she suddenly seems different (haven’t said ‘drunk’) and she says it’s because she’s tired. We are self employed and work together, so she is secretly bringing the drink into the house and disposing of the empty bottles at work. We travel to and from work separately, so this is when the purchasing/disposal of empties is happening. Since the drinking in secret has started she’s been through phases of brandy, whisky and gin. I have asked her if she’s drinking, without mentioning that I know she is and she completely denies it. She looks like a walking skeleton, just skin stretched over bones. She explains this away by saying it’s because she goes running and is very fit. I don’t know where to turn for help. Thank you so much for reading my post