I came out to both myself and publicly on this forum as an alcoholic a few days after quitting drinking. The label is kind of meaningless to me now, but at that time it was an emotionally charged, humbling necessary step for me to accept that I had a serious problem and was in over my head. I no longer think of myself as an alcoholic, but at the same time I self-identify as an alcoholic with other people who are also on the path to sobriety because I find it gives a shared context around the big picture of alcohol addiction, recovery and sobriety.