Alcoholic is a loaded term that carries baggage. Some people have stated they are grateful to be alcoholics. I've heard people claim that, but I could never come close to relating to it. I didn't want to be an alcoholic, but at some point you need to admit that you are no longer in control of your own life. You can label that condition any way you want, but it is a condition you must come to terms with.
This thread is making me think of something in a different light. Before I quit, I knew I had a problem, but I may have focused too much on trying not to be an alcoholic. While that may have seemed like a step in the right direction at the time, it actually worked against me because "trying not to be an alcoholic" in my case was just another way of "learning how to control my drinking." And like many of us here, I went to great lengths for many years, "trying not to be an alcoholic" without realizing the futility of that approach.
Being an alcoholic in recovery (or recovered if you prefer) is not as offensive to me. But being just a plain ole' alcoholic is an ugly business. Call it just a meaningless label, but it is still an ugly business, and it represented a low point in my life that was not just some transient point in time. It lasted for years slowly dragging me deeper and deeper into despair.
I can't overlook that label, or whitewash it. Things are what they are no matter what label you use to describe them, but to recover, I had to come to terms with the situation. And most of all I needed information and knowledge that led to the solution. You may be an alcoholic, but the key for me was to stop acting like one, and it's a simple key, just stop drinking, and stop trying to prove you can drink like a gentleman.