Oh boy, did the actor step in it this time  — claiming that after years of sobriety, he’s gone back to drinking, and it’s working really well for him.

Addiction Experts on Brad Pitt: “Alcoholics Are a Horrible Source of Information About Themselves”

“The 62-year-old star revealed to Esquire that he’s “off the wagon,” but says he’s only drinking “in a more restrained manner,” claiming, “I can have a few [glasses of wine]. But I can’t have a lot. I have to be professional about it.”

“Professional drinking?” someone comments, with a laugh.  “I was a professional drinker for years. That’s what I had to stop being.”

Apparently Brad is no longer an active member of a recovery program. Sounds like he dropped out a while ago, and now has resumed what he probably thinks of as “controlled social” drinking.

I’ve seen this happen plenty of times. A point comes when someone realizes that they really are in desperate straits and the only way out is to quit drinking. And it works. Their life improves dramatically, so they settle into a sober routine which ordinarily involves support from other recovering people.

With the passage of time, however, they begin to feel so much better, so much more confident, that they cut back on treatment and begin living the way they once did, years ago, before alcohol was ever a problem. Be “normal” again, like regular folks.

Perhaps they long ago stopped actively craving alcohol. They can honestly say they no longer even want to drink, at least the way they once did.

They begin to wonder if the forces that drove them to drink have gone away. If so, perhaps they could have just one drink. To see how things go. An experiment.

They saw something on social media, an expert who claimed that some problem drinkers, through  therapy and personal growth, have successfully returned to responsible drinking.

What if I’m one of those people, and just haven’t realized it?  There’s only one way to know for sure.

A test. If the test goes as he hopes — there’s no obvious loss of control, the drinker stops approximately when he intended to stop — that is interpreted as evidence of success.

He repeats the test. And again. And again, to be certain. Cautious.

It’s a familiar path, one that countless others have trod before him. For most of them, things didn’t turn out too well. I’m sure he knows that. We all know that, don’t we?

Then again, maybe he’s the exception. Only one way to find out.