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Not quite the same thing but both of my in-laws have addictions. My father-in-law is an alcoholic and he and my mother-in-law both abuse prescription meds (pain and nerve pills).

He admits freely to being an alcoholic and there have been times he's gone regularly to AA meetings. They both admit to having problems in the past with drugs (MIL, in particular was addicted to oxycontin shortly before I met my husband...claims she hasn't taken any in years but I'm not inclined to believe that) but rarely will they admit to still having problems. It's always "We're not like that anymore" or "We told Dr. Green we can't take the furocets (sp?) anymore. That's what really caused all our problems and now that they're out of our life we're fine" and stuff like that.

The only time they really admit to still having problems is if they can see you're in a particularly sympathetic mood where you'll respond in some sort of understanding, pitying way. They either think or hope we're stupid because even when it's obvious to us that they're under the influence or there's a badly disguised drug deal going down they act innocent and refuse to admit to it, even after the fact.

My dad is an alcoholic and freely admits to it, although it actually doesn't cause problems in his life. He drinks nothing but beer from the time he gets home from work on but very rarely drinks to intoxication and even when he does he doesn't drink and drive or get violent or do anything stupid. I'm sure it's taking its toll on his liver, though.

My uncle is an alcoholic but he doesn't admit to it. "I could quit right now if I wanted to." He also doesn't drink to intoxication...or at least hasn't much in the past (he did a lot when he was young but not in the more recent past). I know he drinks constantly now. His wife's grandmother died a couple of years ago and he had beer in the car and sat outside and drank through it. He drinks a lot and maybe he actually does drink to intoxication but it's not that noticeable to people around him if that makes sense. He claims he gets different tests done regularly and that his liver is perfectly fine.

My grandfather may or may not have been alcoholic. When my mom and her siblings were growing up he drank often and a lot. He also often became quite violent, even knocking my grandmother out. But around the time I was born he pretty much just stopped all of that. He still drank with friends and at big family functions but he never got violent anymore or drank to excess. In fact I think there was only one time in my life (at least as far back as I can remember) that he actually got drunk. I would think that a true alcoholic that continues to drink all those years would have lots of slip-ups where they'd get drunk and maybe exhibit that old violent behavior again.