Originally Posted by
Darklight 
If you read the Big Book, it also says:
No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.
This is actually not referring to staying sober, it's referring, as it says, to maintaining the principles of AA in daily living.
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Relapse DOES NOT have to be a part of one's path to recovery although, sadly, it often is.
With that said, I realized I had a problem with alcohol at the age of 16ish. I went to my first meeting then. Over the next 15ish years I bounced back from drinking to meetings, mostly drinking. Did I relapse? No, I never stopped drinking in the first place. At what point is it actually a relapse if I wasn't WORKING for my sobriety in the first place?