Originally Posted by
August252015 
I am definitely what the Big Book calls a "real alcoholic," yet in recovery I have never once experienced cravings. I have only had fleeting thoughts at three points of something even like he inkling of a "what if." I don't think cravings mean anything once you get sober- they were certainly mental and emotional for me well before I became a full blown alcoholic, so I do believe in a spectrum and he progressive nature of our disease..but by the time they were physical it wasn't cravings any more, it was dependency.
Same here. The craving I suffered is what AA calls the phenomenon of craving which kicks in after the first drink. This craving does not vary in power, it simply makes drinking paramount to all other considerations. It takes a few days to get alcohol completely out of one's systme, but after that, the overpowering craving cannot occur.
I do recall having two moments in early sobriety where a drink sounded nice but these thoughts were easily dismissed.
Whether alcoholism is binary is a more complicated question because there are so many ideas around about what constitutes an alcoholic. For example, in some parts of the world the courts think that drink driving makes you an alcoholic. I stick with the AA description which has two symptoms, loss of control in how much we drink when we start, and loss of choice as to whether we will drink or not.
AA is pretty clear that not everyone crosses the line where the power of choice is lost, and if you have not crossed that line then they put you in the class of hard drinker, someone who can stop or moderate if they have a good enough reason.
Usually, even if someone has crossed the line, they won't at first be willing to admit it and will expend a lot of time and energy trying to prove it.