Gerard52

Is alcoholism binary either you are one or are not, or is it a scale of dependency?

If you don't experience cravings or urges are you really an alcoholic.

Snowydelrico

That sounds a bit of a risky thought.
Careful Gerard.

Once an addict always an addict.
Do your eyes change colour after a long period of time not looking in the mirror?
It is what it is.

Snowydelrico

I’ll never know what it is to be “normal” because I’m not.
Not when it comes to my thought process and what alcohol has done to it.
Doesn’t make it a bad thing though.
Just means I get to have another crack at life, and my actions are justified.

CaptainHaddock

I don’t judge whether I am an alcoholic by looking at how long my cravings last, when they occur, how bad they are etc. I look at how alcohol affects my life when I am drinking.

August252015

I am definitely what the Big Book calls a "real alcoholic," yet in recovery I have never once experienced cravings. I have only had fleeting thoughts at three points of something even like he inkling of a "what if." I don't think cravings mean anything once you get sober- they were certainly mental and emotional for me well before I became a full blown alcoholic, so I do believe in a spectrum and he progressive nature of our disease..but by the time they were physical it wasn't cravings any more, it was dependency.

Dee74

I don't think there's any correlation between the level of cravings and the level of the alcoholism myself,

I haven't craved at all for several years. That doesn't make me not an alcoholic

I would be extremely wary of any thought - however tangential - that suggested I was might not be an alcoholic.

Never confuse abstinence with control.

D.

Atlast9999

This is a very powerful statement Dee. I’m glad you shared this - it’s helpful to heed this advice.

entropy1964

Bigger cravings for me are usually a sign of smaller acceptance. Its usually my sign that I need to remind myself that drinking will never work out.

Lesser cravings? Just a sign that I'm in the right place. But definitely not a sign that I'm not an alcoholic. Quite the opposite actually....if that makes any sense.

least

I stopped having cravings after I started practicing gratitude every day.

Fearlessat50

I never liked the term alcoholic. It conjures up images of homeless drunks (at least for me, because that’s what I was taught). I’ve read and also saw a documentary on drinking that doctors are getting away from this term - maybe for the same reason - and now calling alcohol problems “alcohol use disorder” which is a spectrum. I do think the term is more fitting with everything we now know about alcoholism and addiction. I do also believe there is a scale of dependency. But just because one may not be chemically dependent or because one may not need a medical detox or rehab to quit doesn’t take away from the fact that there is a problem. The first time I quit, it was for 3 months with no urges or cravings whatsoever, then a social pressure led to a relapse and my drinking got worse. Next I went six months, then nine with the very same thing. Never an urge or craving, then wham out of nowhere I drank again and I was worse than before. I’m now almost two years and really hoping I never relapse again. I don’t plan on it and am working very hard at my sobriety now and will continue for a life time. It’s interesting because even with my worst period of relapse and drinking and knowing I had a problem, I still drank less than some folks I know who don’t believe they have a problem. The reason why I know it’s a problem for me is because of being self aware and educating myself re addiction.

Fearlessat50

Love this, least

Gottalife

Same here. The craving I suffered is what AA calls the phenomenon of craving which kicks in after the first drink. This craving does not vary in power, it simply makes drinking paramount to all other considerations. It takes a few days to get alcohol completely out of one's systme, but after that, the overpowering craving cannot occur.

I do recall having two moments in early sobriety where a drink sounded nice but these thoughts were easily dismissed.

Whether alcoholism is binary is a more complicated question because there are so many ideas around about what constitutes an alcoholic. For example, in some parts of the world the courts think that drink driving makes you an alcoholic. I stick with the AA description which has two symptoms, loss of control in how much we drink when we start, and loss of choice as to whether we will drink or not.

AA is pretty clear that not everyone crosses the line where the power of choice is lost, and if you have not crossed that line then they put you in the class of hard drinker, someone who can stop or moderate if they have a good enough reason.

Usually, even if someone has crossed the line, they won't at first be willing to admit it and will expend a lot of time and energy trying to prove it.

Aardvajk

It is perhaps worth remembering that we all bandy the word "alcoholic" about as if it has a clearly defined meaning that we all agree on, but personally if I take the time to look at it more closely, I discover it is a very vague term that means lots of different things to different people.

I don't personally see much use for me in trying to work out if I fit one particular definition or not. I just know that if I was able to control my drinking in the future, I would have almost certainly done that in the past, and I never did.