I think I can help with this one. I'm coming up on five years sober and I think I must be the one alcoholic out of 1,000 who had to argue with their doctor that I -did- have a problem. I knew that I didn't drink the same way other people did, and that I had no control after the first drink. It scared me. I made my first appearance at an AA meeting 10 years ago. Sat in the back, quiet as a mouse. Kept drinking. Two years later I went back and identified as an alcoholic. Took another three years before it stuck.
I knew that I had a problem. Knowing that you have the problem isn't the problem. For anyone who isn't an alcoholic - the simple answer is "just don't drink." And it is, ironically, just that simple. Accepting that you're an alcoholic isn't hard when there's mounting evidence that the stuff is starting to ruin your life and your health. Accepting the next part - that you can't drink again, ever, is the hard part. And almost every alcoholic tries to do this by themselves - for most it doesn't work. It didn't for me.
Always knew I had a problem - had to really hit bottom before I was willing to live my life, my whole life, around addressing that problem.
SL.