I think you don't need to label yourself an alcoholic if you don't want to...if alcohol is causing a problem then the solution is to not drink alcohol.
I would guess that every one of us did NOT want to quit. I tried every moderate-drinking trick in the books...every count-my-drinks-only-drink-on-weekends-stick-to-wine little hacks I could come up with. I wasn't going on benders and I didn't get a DUI and no one was telling me to quit...but internally I was a mess. Miserable, angry, despondent, depressed, anxious. Mostly angry. At everyone and everything.
It was time. I could have kept on playing the, "I'm not that bad," tape - but I was that bad. I was drinking more frequently, earlier in the day, drinking more, drinking because, "Everything is more fun when I drink," and because it was a habit that I had created by years of doing it. I could see the drain. I was heading in that direction and it was time.
I hope you get there sooner rather than later. It's a whole heckofalot better to not drink. So much better.