I believe two types of people form negative connotations for the term "alcoholic":
1. those that have never and will never become one;
2. those that already are and don't admit it to themselves;
As far as what people think of you.....There's only one person you need to answer to in life - that's yourself. If you can look at yourself in the mirror at the end of an honest day's work and say, "good job, you gave it 100% today and you've done well" then may I ask, "Why would you care what other people thought?". Their negative thoughts carry no weight!
Good luck.