Recovered? Recovering? - oh boy'ee.
Last night was a wonderful date night for my husband and I.
(Our date nights now consist of Nanna watching our almost two year old daughter while my husband and I actually eat at the kitchen table and talk. Party, huh? ^_^)
Anywho! While at the table, we got on the subject of vacation. I told him that I probably would not want to go back to New Orleans for a while, not because I would be so much tempted to drink, but, the negative association (seeing a lot of other people drunk) would probably really stress me out while in 'the big easy'. I made it clear to him, that although I have been sober for going on 3 years, he still has to remember that I AM an alcoholic and recovery is a continuous and daily process. Well, he looked at me and said ... "Bull sh**."
He said "let's look up the definition of addiction" ... while doing that he pointed out that I was no longer physically or mentally addicted to booze, that I no longer wanted to drink booze, and that I had made a remarkable turnaround of my life. Dare I say this... he said "YOU'RE RECOVERED! STOP SAYING YOU'RE AN ALCOHOLIC."
*eek...* I tried to explain to him that there is still a part of me that is completely obsessive compulsive with a sprinkle of addictiveness; and yes, although I feel confident enough that I would stay away from booze, it still sometimes consumes my mind. Not drinking booze, but, being put in situations where others around me are drinking. My husband said that I mention not drinking so much and my alcoholism that obviously, alcohol is still controlling my brain.
O_O ... I really did not know what to say to this. I said, well, it's good for me to talk these things out, and he pretty much said that that was crap and that I need to stop calling myself an alcoholic if I no longer drink and that the whole philosophy of alcoholics anonymous (which I did not use, btw) and sober recovery groups is dumb. He said that the whole purpose of these groups are to make you think that you are powerless (in a way) to alcoholism and without the support of a higher power, you cannot overcome your addiction. After that, I pretty much gave up the conversation and said something like.. "You wanna go watch 'King of the Hill'?
Anywho, I would like your perspectives on the tenses of 'recover'.
Thanks!