Hi, I'm Ken -- I am an alcoholic!
Nope, we are pretty much all the same in one way or another. I drank beer, you drank wine, someone else drank vodka. I functioned pretty well in life as well, great job, home, family, etc. Once I stopped the physical crap (dumping copious amounts of beer, alcohol, sleeping pills, etc.) into my body, I found out that alcohol is a symptom of everything else. Now I have physical sobriety (absence of booze), need to work on the others (for me, that's emotional sobriety, mental sobriety and spiritual sobriety). Please note that I said "spiritual," as opposed to religious....
For me, AA was the way to go. Lots of drunks like me who became sober (all of the above categories). It's probably not how you think. Just the other day my wife asked what I said when I got up on the podium
!!! Definitely not what people think. PM any one of us in the AA forum if you have any questions, or just post down there. No rules or regulations, just a desire to not drink. Period.
Either way you go, I hope you will keep posting here. For me, I have to keep in mind that my children need me to suit up and show up every day, and I just wasn't doing that in my drinking days (which weren't that long ago, BTW).
So, use us, abuse us, just don't lose us! OK, don't abuse us -- just thought the rhyme was cool!
Keep us posted on your progress, and congrats on deciding that today's THE DAY! Great stuff!
Ken