Zebra1275

The only time I call myself an alcoholic is when I'm at a meeting. Outside of a meeting it's nobodies business and I just don't drink.

dSober

Good for you Rossi! Seems a little odd to me given your sobriety date and the fact that you're here, but OK.

I'm contemplating a new reason to call myself an alcoholic: When I think it might be helpful to someone, including myself. Let's see:

I am an alcoholic.

So far, so good.

Ozgirl

I consider myself in recovery from alcohol addiction.

NYCDoglvr

To stop drinking you must accept you're an alcoholic, that you're powerless over alcohol and your life has become unmanageable. You quit by not drinking today. That's all, it's only today. Tomorrow when you get up you decide you're not drinking today as well. It's no more complicated than that.

tammy711

I call myself Tammy mostly... sometimes I call myself tired. ;- )

On a more serious note: I haven't formally referred to myself as an alcoholic. I believe I am one based on several definitions. When the time comes that I must reject a drink, I'm not sure how I will justify my lack of drinking, if I am actually pressed to do so.

I think jokingly I may say I'm allergic and if pressed more I will make it clear, I can't drink due to my disease.

Rossy

Well I was never an alcoholic I was more a big weekend drinker which sometimes got out of hand,as to why I am here I have no idea.

least

I'm a recovered alcoholic.

dox

I am an alcoholic; I know I am. That is one of the basic truths of my sobriety.
Yes, I beleive that everyone has a different spin on the term. How can we not?
Personally, I could stop in the evening. But, I was a daily drinker that could not stop for a day.
So my personal definition of alcoholic is one who cannot stop without help.
I didn't always know that I was alcoholic. Even when I admitted it in meetings as I introduced myself; I didn't really accept the label.
In early sobriety, it helped me to hear that "The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking."
Since working through the steps with a sponsor I know that I am an alcoholic.

I own the label.

Labels are not bad things, in my humble opinion. How else would we know what's in the container?

I am happy to be labeled: husband, father, son, brother, teacher and, in appropriate circumstances, alcoholic.

The label fits. It helps to remind me what is likely to happen if, or when, I pick up a drink.

When all is said, defined, debated or related; even though we all have a somewhat different way of looking at it; we share one thing . . .

Call it what you will.

~dox

penny74

l think l am but my doctor and the alcohol councelers say l went through a tough time and used alcohol as self medication.
Very confusing.

Bgh2002

My doctors diagnosis of me was. Dependant on alcohol or alcohol dependant. I'm no longer dependant on it, now life is about cleaning up the mess of the past years. I could very easily fall right back into that lifestyle. Alcoholic, junkie, drunk, idiot, dependant, Alchy, addict... call it whatever you'd like. I will sometimes refer to myself as a junkie when talking about it with friends, because it sounds funny, and that type of thing helps me with not being so hard on myself. I use addict more frequently however, because its better suiting of the type of personality that I have.

Bgh2002

The beginning of my post kind of makes no sense, I meant it as thats what my doctor had me labelled as.

ru12

I try not to call people names, and that includes myself. I used to drink too much, now I don't drink. That's about it really.

NYCDoglvr

Why is this an issue? We can do whatever we want. Go to AA, not go to AA. You can also simply say you don't drink. You don't have to explain to anyone. The word "No" is a complete sentence.

sable1

I think I'm an alcoholic. Why?
Firstly I have absolutely no control when I drink. Anything could happen. It's scary. I've done so many crazy things that I don't remember but have been told about afterwords. It's like, once the alcohol goes in, something else just takes over.

I also can't stop once I start and the craving for more is unbelievably strong. It's like my body just needs it so strongly.

I clearly don't react to alcohol the way others do. Alcoholic is one way to put it, but the term seems a bit mysterious to me. I prefer to think of myself as an addict, and alcohol was my main drug. Alcoholic just sounds a bit strange in my head...

Cantonian

I'm an alcoholic ( grateful and recovering)...If I'm in recovery it's not that big of a deal ( I am)...if I'm practicing well...

sugarbear1

You said it best. "My problem is I can't stop once I start." For me I will add that I couldn't live life without drinking, wanting only one, then I can't stop once I start.

Simply stated.

AudreyAna

I am an alcoholic for sure.
I use alcohol to avoid my problems, and to quiet the hateful thoughts I have.
I realized just the other day what it was I was trying to avoid by drinking, because I had a huge panic attack and wasn't able to drink to stop it. I had to deal with how uncomfortable and miserable I was, and I survived. That was a major turning point for me...

Alcoholic or not, if you don't want to drink, I hope you find a way to work it out!

xoxo

freshstart57

AudreyAna, that panic, for me anyway, was mostly caused by drinking and withdrawing from it. When you quit for good, that anxiety will lessen and things will even out for you.

There are other ways to deal with hateful thoughts that are much healthier than trying to numb them with alcohol. Please look into 'mindfulness', it's a way to just leave those hateful feelings alone without getting all twisted into knots with them. You can google that, or 'breath meditation'. I am sure it will do you a lot of good.

MalkavianEmily

Yes. Yes, I do. It took a while before I could even say "the 'A' word", but now... I've accepted it. Because if I don't, the chances are I will drink again. And I know how that ends.
And today, I do not want to drink.

I don't like the term. I would be very happy not to use it to describe me. Or, more precisely, I would be very happy if it wasn't an accurate label. But wishing it was so won't make it true. Telling myself that I don't have a problem... well, that didn't get me anywhere.

adamjet

I'm with flutter. I'd never call myself an alcoholic. I'm just a non drinker.