Originally Posted by
sortofhomecomin 
I think it's interesting that some people on this forum openly describe themselves as 'recovered alcoholics'. Not 'recovering' or even just 'alcoholic' but recovered. I went to AA meetings in Dublin for 10 months every day - sometimes twice a day - and only one person would introduce himself as a recovered alcoholic and some of the others would slag him off about this, behind his back. Then again it begs the question why does he need to attend AA meetings if he's recovered? This bloke looked very healthy and I had no reason to disbelieve his statements that he was off booze for 20 years. I'm just trying to tease all this stuff out for myself.
I'm pretty much with Ken on this one. At least I think I am. I know the point people are attempting make when they use the term recovering, and I use it because it's like the thing to do, especially in AA, but to me recovered and recovery can sometimes be interchangeable. I understand the "one drink is all it takes part of alcoholism," but if a person commits to never taking that drink, I'm fine with calling that person recovered. And I believe many recovered alcoholics have truly made that commitment.
But the semantics involved in this thing don't mean much to me. We either get well or we don't.