If there's one thing I've learned on my recovery journey, it's that I don't get to define certain terms for anybody else but me, and vice versa (nobody gets to define those terms for me). Some of those terms are....:
alcoholic/alcoholism (although I do go by AA's BB for that one); sober/sobriety;
sobriety date;
recovery;
recovering/recovered; and
although not a term, per se.....how to work the AA Program (the steps) correctly.
When I was active in my alcoholism (+ other drug addictions--all of em), I drank/used to get high, period (and on rare occasions, for the taste)..... Today, I have been known to have an NA malt beverage and/or NA wine from time to time.....for the taste; I've never gotten high, nor has this ever triggered any desire for the 'real' things---and this definitely does NOT mean that I was not a real alcoholic (today, a real, recovered alcoholic).
I was very fortunate that when I started on my recovery journey, my sponsor, and all the others in my support group, did not tell me what to do, and/or how to do it; they made suggestions based on their experience, and let me decide. So far, it's worked for me.......
NoelleR
DOS: 6/23/86