All real alcoholics are powerless when it comes to alcohol. Two simple questions help us determine if we are (or aren't) alcoholic:
"If, when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit entirely, or if when drinking, you have little control over the amount you take, you are probably alcoholic."
~Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 44
You only have to answer one in the affirmative. Me? I could white-knuckle my way through sobriety for an extended period of time (while I was pregnant and nursing, while I was substituting some other substance for alcohol), but never, when I picked up the first one, could I stop. It took external circumstances or my own body/mind shutting down to get me to stop. And as for the former, the "strange mental blank spots" (p. 42) got me eventually--until I had a solution.
Peace & Love,
Sugah