How definitions of alcohol use disorder and recovery have evolved

Brad Pitt’s recent revelation that he’s drinking again in “a more restrained manner,” after seven years of sobriety following heavy drinking, sparked intense pushback. The actor’s past behavior aside, the larger controversy was in challenging the long-held idea that someone who struggled with alcohol in the past can’t ever drink normally — that recovery is defined solely by sobriety. The controversy Pitt stepped into comes down to old versus relatively new approaches to dealing with drinking problems. What makes someone “recovered” from alcohol addiction has seen “an evolution in health care,” said Dr. Smita Das, addiction psychiatrist in the Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University in California.