I was told to answer the following three questions to determine whether I am an alcoholic:
1. Does my experience abundantly confirm that I can't predict how much I'll drink once I have the first one? (Importantly, this drives home the point that I don't have to drink alcoholically every time I pick up -- only that I often do, and that I can't predict when I will and won't.)
2. Does my experience abundantly confirm that even after I have firmly committed to not drinking again (in light of #1 above), that I always find my way back to the insane thought that the next right thing for me to do is pick up a drink?
3. Does my experience abundantly confirm that nothing "in the world" is going to fix the problems identified in #1 and #2 above? IOW, most alcoholics have to "wear out" all their worldly solutions before they'll get serious about recovery. By worldly solutions I mean rationalizations like: I just need to find the right job/home/partner/self-help book, etc.
I was told that if my answer to all 3 of the above was "yes", then I might be a real alcoholic -- and, specifically, I might be the type of alcoholic whose only hope lies in Alcoholics Anonymous. That has turned out to be the case for me. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat more about that.