Being a quick learner it only took me 30+ years to determine I couldn't drink at all. It was not through lack of effort.........
I obsessed over drinking and could not quit on my own I found. When I drank, often and pretty much all the time the few years prior to quitting - once started I could not /did not want to stop. These were pretty good indications I had a serious problem.
There is no real litmus test, but I am always reminded of this as the questions arises - "Most of us have been unwilling to admit we were real alcoholics. No person likes to think he is bodily and mentally different from his fellows. Therefore, it is not surprising that our drinking careers have been characterized by countless vain attempts to prove we could drink like other people. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. The persistence of this illusion is astonishing. Many pursue it into the gates of insanity or death."
Pg 30 Big Book
When a sober alcoholic picks up a drink, that is the true measure of insanity