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Old 10-20-2012, 07:37 AM
  # 12 (permalink)  
NEOMARXIST
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Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 2,013
Thanks for the well-wishes everybody and yes, I'm doing well thanks; life is good

I have always been very open about being an alcoholic, especially when it comes to situations/conversations about booze. Obviously you get natural intuition and a feel for people/situations and whether the need is there to acknowledge yourself as an alcoholic when drinking convo's come up etc. In my experience and because I'm so open about it there is often the oppurtunity for much humour to actually be created within the conversation; the look on people's face can be priceless haha - especially when they realise you're being serious too.

Whether it's because I got sober young I don't know, but I do know that the stigma that I see people think there is about calling themselves alcoholic is largely non-existent in my own experience. In fact, admitting to my innermost self (as it says in AA BB) that I'm an alcoholic was/is my most powerful weapon against believing that I can drink like other people; I can't as I'm an alcoholic. I have found that I have gained nothing but respect on the whole about being straight about my alcoholism as to why I don't drink, and also it means that other people know the score plain and simple. I know that when I was a drunk then I gained no respect from anybody and lost a lot of self-respect.

I do believe that people can get overly concerned in semantics/labels but I also believe and am grateful that I embraced myself as an alcoholic, as like anything; once you know the problem/ailment then you know what you're up against and you can work on the solution.

The problem I could see with the alcoholic word is if you drink again; then your self-esteem and people's opinions of you would be in the gutter and maybe this is why people have issue with the word alcoholic as it is so final and leaves no room for other labels such as binge-drinker, problem drinker, heavy drinker, p*ss-head, substance abuser etcetcetc which ultimately may allow you to make excuses to drink again, as afterall there are lot's of these people out on a Friday and Saturday night etc.

So I guess what I'm saying is that in my experience, embracing yourself as an alcoholic is crucial in maintaining sobriety and is a crucial part of recovery. Certainly for me this was/is the case and I'm grateful for my acceptance of my alcoholism, for me it was a totally positive thing and only good came of it.
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