What is the difference between an alcoholic and a drunk?
An alcoholic goes to meetings!
Just a little humor.
As others have already said, one is an alcoholic when they say they are.
It is not how much one drinks, it is not how often one drinks, it is what happens to one when they drink that determines if they are an alcoholic or not!
Medical science breaks out alcoholism into stages, some of them define it in three stages, others in 5, but it really does not matter for an alcoholic what stage they are at when they quit, what matters is that they quit!