I've known this guy for many years since college, where we briefly dated and found we had a strong connection. However, we both moved to different cities and saw other people, but still talked on and off. However, this fall I found myself living in the same city as he does for the first time in several years. So we've been seeing each other for a few months, but we've been friends (sometimes more) for like eight years. It's been mostly great.

What I didn't know about him is how much he drinks. He has a parent who is an alcoholic, so maybe family history has a role (and also makes this a very sensitive issue for him). He doesn't drink on work nights for the most part as best I can tell, and has never had issues holding down a job (he has a great career) or taking care of his responsibilities. However, he buys vodka by what appears to be the gallon, and I think typically finishes off the better part of that in a weekend. I've also seen him drink 25+ beers in one sitting.

When I make a mostly playful comment about how much he's drinking, he blames it on his heritage (known for being able to hold their alcohol). But really, I'm concerned for him. However, I come from a family where drinking isn't the norm at all and I myself prefer to have maybe three drinks total a week so this seems pretty excessive to me.

Do you think this is something worth bringing up? How would you go about it? Or, am I overreacting? I've debated just walking away instead of trying to address it because this is probably a deal-breaker for me in terms of super long term potential (no one wants to raise kids with a potential alcoholic, right?)
user
guy I've known for many years and have recently (3 months?) started dating drinks way more than I am comfortable with, but it doesn't seem to be negatively impacting his life. Still worried it's
assistant
I've known this guy for many years since college, where we briefly dated and found we had a strong connection. However, we both moved to different cities and saw other people, but still talked on and off. However, this fall I found myself living in the same city as he does for the first time in several years. So we've been seeing each other for a few months, but we've been friends (sometimes more) for like eight years. It's been mostly great.

What I didn't know about him is how much he drinks. He has a parent who is an alcoholic, so maybe family history has a role (and also makes this a very sensitive issue for him). He doesn't drink on work nights for the most part as best I can tell, and has never had issues holding down a job (he has a great career) or taking care of his responsibilities. However, he buys vodka by what appears to be the gallon, and I think typically finishes off the better part of that in a weekend. I've also seen him drink 25+ beers in one sitting.

When I make a mostly playful comment about how much he's drinking, he blames it on his heritage (known for being able to hold their alcohol). But really, I'm concerned for him. However, I come from a family where drinking isn't the norm at all and I myself prefer to have maybe three drinks total a week so this seems pretty excessive to me.

Do you think this is something worth bringing up? How would you go about it? Or, am I overreacting? I've debated just walking away instead of trying to address it because this is probably a deal-breaker for me in terms of super long term potential (no one wants to raise kids with a potential alcoholic, right?)
user
I think this guy has a drinking problem. I think he'd have a hard time holding down a full-time job because of it. How do you go about talking to him about it?
assistant