I self medicated various things with alcohol, but along the way I also became an alcoholic...so I had to deal with both things.

I glad the way is a little easier for you now 16 - I really hope that continues :)

D

One guiding thing may be what happens when you stop. In your case you may have been usung alcohol to medicate a specific condition. When you found the right medication for that condition, life got better and the need to drink went away.

As an alcoholic, what happened to me every time I stopped drinking, life got worse. There was no medication to treat what was wrong with me so I enetually became so uncomfortable that I returned to alcohol.

That continued until I found a sufficient substitute, which wasn't any kind of medication, it was a satisfying way of life.

I think it can be both. I don't remember sitting down and thinking I'm going to self medicate today, and tomorrow and I'm going to be a garden variety alcoholic. The end result was the same each time.

My view of this type of issue is that once we know alcohol is bad for us, that we need to stay away from it forever, the label we then attach to our previous actions doesn't even matter. That's a framework that has worked very well for me in building a new life completely free from alcohol and the misery associated with it.