You are what you label yourself.
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 637
You are what you label yourself.
Today I make 201 days off pain medicine.
For the title I've been reading alot and working on alot of self care. But in one of my reads a person stated that you are what you label yourself. So in recovery you introduce yourself as hey I'm sticky and I'm a alcoholic or I'm sticky a addict. Letting others now that you are in recovery. Or others say I'm sticky and I'm a recovering addict. I'm not trying to start any trouble. For me I just say hey I'm sticky and today I'm sober. Everyone is entitled to there own recovery. I know drinking and the negative effects it has on life and others. I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 8 years. But I know that if I drink the gateway will open for those pills. My name is stickyone and I am sober today and I am a father, husband, uncle a great person. Have a great day everyone.
For the title I've been reading alot and working on alot of self care. But in one of my reads a person stated that you are what you label yourself. So in recovery you introduce yourself as hey I'm sticky and I'm a alcoholic or I'm sticky a addict. Letting others now that you are in recovery. Or others say I'm sticky and I'm a recovering addict. I'm not trying to start any trouble. For me I just say hey I'm sticky and today I'm sober. Everyone is entitled to there own recovery. I know drinking and the negative effects it has on life and others. I haven't had a drink of alcohol in 8 years. But I know that if I drink the gateway will open for those pills. My name is stickyone and I am sober today and I am a father, husband, uncle a great person. Have a great day everyone.
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Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 94
This is great!
I did professional treatment and AA. I had a real problem with saying my name is .... and I’m an alcoholic.
in treatment group therapy they refused to use alcoholic, Addict.
we just referred to it as substance or alcohol misuse. Feels a lot less permanent and hopeful that you don’t need to be labeled as an addict for the rest of your life.
I did professional treatment and AA. I had a real problem with saying my name is .... and I’m an alcoholic.
in treatment group therapy they refused to use alcoholic, Addict.
we just referred to it as substance or alcohol misuse. Feels a lot less permanent and hopeful that you don’t need to be labeled as an addict for the rest of your life.
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 201
If that works for you then great. For me, I need to see my alcoholism as a terminal disease and sobriety as a way to put the disease into remission. But then again, I don't make being an alcoholic into my whole personality and self identity. I try to be more fair to myself than that. I see alcoholism the same way I see cancer. No one thinks someone IS cancer just because they have cancer. Like I said, if it works for you, that is great. I need to remember that I suffer from alcoholism though. I never lose sight of the fact that if I pick up a drink again, I will go right back into the terminal trajectory I was on before. My body plus alcohol equals early death. On other sobriety attempts I have tried not thinking of myself this way and all it did was allow me to give myself an excuse to try moderation and end up right where I started. Being sober does not take away the thinking and brain chemistry that drove me to seek the escape of alcohol. That part of me will always be there, so I need to stay on my treatment regimen or else I risk dying very soon. I may not like having the label, but it beats pretending I don't and killing myself. We are all different in that way, I suppose.
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Join Date: Jul 2020
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 466
I believe our actions are what ultimately creates our label. Our actions define what we are 'labelled' as, in the truest sense of the word. Otherwise we can simply vocalize a false label that isn't true to ourselves and fall into delusion.That being said though, our past actions and subsequent past labels do not have to define our future actions.
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Sonoran Desert & Southeast Asia
Posts: 6,561
Fantastic post LBC, it is essential for me also to acknowledge my alcoholism, while not necessarily identifying with the label. For some of us it is a slippery slope once we begin to convince ourselves that we're not alcoholic. Lord knows I have been down the path of moderation many times and it always leads to a dead end. For me any alcohol is toxic to my thinking.
Hears The Voice
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Unshackled
Posts: 7,901
On the other hand...
Since joining this website (and beginning my recovery journey) I have started two profitable businesses, founded a charity, and a new professional association. I repaired badly strained family bonds. I finished my masters degree and I am an adjunct professor at a local university.
That stinking, shaking, anxious, ashamed, barely hanging on fellow in the corner might like to know that I am an alcoholic. I like where I am, but I didn't start where I am. I started in the corner.
Since joining this website (and beginning my recovery journey) I have started two profitable businesses, founded a charity, and a new professional association. I repaired badly strained family bonds. I finished my masters degree and I am an adjunct professor at a local university.
That stinking, shaking, anxious, ashamed, barely hanging on fellow in the corner might like to know that I am an alcoholic. I like where I am, but I didn't start where I am. I started in the corner.
Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Oxnard (The Nard), CA, USA.
Posts: 13,962
I no longer participate in AA/NA so I dropped the whole label deal. My daily wellness plan doesn't require me to label myself. I'm a person that once had a problem that once had me. Like the old saying; you can please some of the peoples some of the time . But you cant please all the people all the time. Or different strokes for different folks 
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Apr 2020
Posts: 637
Day 207,
Thank you all for the great responses. I didn't mean to offend anyone if I did. I actually had some anxiety for a few days and didn't want to read the replies. After I posted I wanted to delete it the next day. I'm working day by day and growing. Thank you everyone for the support.
Thank you all for the great responses. I didn't mean to offend anyone if I did. I actually had some anxiety for a few days and didn't want to read the replies. After I posted I wanted to delete it the next day. I'm working day by day and growing. Thank you everyone for the support.
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