I didn't relapse. I attribute that to me being plugged into my recovery full time for the first three years.
At just over a year sober I got it in my head that I wasn't an alcoholic but just a heavy drinker. I had proved that I could quit (how painful that first year was all of a sudden escaped me). I really started to believe it. Then I logged on here and someone was talking about that very thing and said it was common among addicts. That kind of thing happened frequently.