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Actually I suppose it might be semantics, but I've never considered a "dry drunk" to simply be someone that has a drinking problem but has managed to quit. Rather, it is as indicated by the OP's friend - someone who has a personality defect that led them to abuse alcohol, and has managed to quit drinking, but hasn't done the personal work to get at the root causes for the drinking. Dry drunks often just substitute some other destructive behavior in place of drinking.
I'm not saying that the OP is in fact a "dry drunk," but I also don't think that it is advisable to completely disregard the comment from a friend. Yes, there are AA people who have issues (duh), and AA can lead to cultish behavior. So one needs to take most everything with a grain of salt. But in my experience, if someone is drinking or taking drugs to a point where it negatively impacts their life, odds are there is some underlying set of psychological issues that are driving the behavior. And while willpower can stop a behavior, it can't really cure a personality. Similarly, prescription pharmaceuticals can treat a number of problems, but a "cure" requires a deeper and more difficult dive.
While everyone is different and ymmv, the patterns of addiction are pretty predictable.
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