no its not the same , enjoy just don't over do over do it or take anything else ie benzo or something.
You seem to ask two question: 1) does "drinking alcohol delays WDs"?; and 2) "does alcohol impede (sp) the road to recovery in any way, shape, or form?"
On no. 1 I'd say "probably not." Alcohol generally works differently than opiates, although some alcoholics metabolize alcohol into an opiate-like molecule called THIQ. So, unless you are a THIQ alcoholic, you're talking apples and oranges as far as actual wd goes.
No. 2 is, for me, not so clear cut. I must avoid anything and everything that is mood altering -- not just stuff that will get me high, but ANYTHING that alters mood by altering brain chemistry. I just had an appointment with a new family doc this afternoon and I gave him a copy of the long list of Rx and OTC meds that are off limits to me. Docs who are not used to working with addicts tend to think only in terms of whether or not drug-x is addictive (or has high abuse potential) and if not they assume it's OK for an addict.
NA takes a pretty straight forward approach to alcohol: DON'T.
Here's what the Basic Text says in How it Works: "Thinking of alcohol as different from other drugs has caused a great many addicts to relapse. Before we came to NA, many of us viewed alcohol separately, but we cannot afford to be confused about this. Alcohol is a drug. We are people with the disease of addiction who must abstain from all drugs in order to recover."
All that being said, when I got to my 2nd rehab in June of 2005, the only way I made it through the first 2 days was with 2 of those big bottles of beer, which I was able to buy (and guzzle) when I snuck out of an NA meeting on day-1 and an AA meeting on day-2.