I'm not a fan of us vs them either in ANY situation, but I can see where the encouragement to consider ourselves as 'different' comes from. I think there's a fear that if we consider ourselves as 'normal', then we may convince ourselves that we can go back to drinking like 'normal' people. In that sense, we may have to constantly remind ourselves that we simply can't drink 'normally' like 'normal' people do.
But yeah, generally speaking I don't like to think of myself like a leper or anything. TU is right - 'normal' should not be equated to drinking, although that's what everyone tends to do.