It seems to me that the difficulty comes in when we try to put boundaries around what it means to "recover". Some people think of "recovery" as including not just abstaining from alcohol, but also, basically, everything that comes afterwards...so that they are really never done "recovering".
That has never made the slightest sense to me. I think of it like this: I quit drinking. End of THAT story. Then I kept on living, learning, and growing--in better, healthier ways than were possible when I was drinking. But I don't view that second piece as "recovery", I view it as life.