Originally Posted by JeffreyAK

To me it's the overtones. "Alcoholic" conjures up media-created visions of what an alcoholic is, and most of the time that vision doesn't fit. It's also frequently misused to refer to former alcohol addicts who no longer drink at all, as a kind of scarlet A. I don't use it myself, except among former addicts who understand, and only in past-tense since non-drinkers can't be alcoholics. But it's just a word, people either use it or not, and are either comfortable with it or not.