July 10 - Alcoholic or other?

Posted by a member

"Someone very close to me is convincing himself that he's one of the 'other' types of drinkers the Big Book talks about. How can you be certain you're an alcoholic, and not just a heavy drinker, or occasional drinker?

For me, I don't need any convincing. My drinking convinced me very effectively. My last drunk, I set out to just have a 'nice time' at a bar with some guy I had just met recently. I thought "I'll just have a couple vodka/tonics and watch the football game"....(I had decided prior to that that I would never do coke again). So, about 14 vodka/tonics later, I'm loosening up my resolve to never do coke again, and proceeding to do that, too.

That evening took me down the ever-familiar road of doing things I regretted, being a woman filled with self-loathing, remorse, regret....it also could have gotten me killed since the guy was packin that I was pissing off.

The next morning, when I couldn't hold down water, let alone care for my 3 yr old son....I came to believe that I couldn't live like this anymore. I knew that if I kept on doin what I kept on doin, I'd keep on getting more of the same. I couldn't take it anymore. I was tired of getting beat down....so very tired.

That was January 9th, 1989...but it took awhile longer to give up the pot. That's why my sobriety date is 3/12/89.

So now....my 3 yr old is 23....and he's not convinced he's one of us, even though he likes to go to AA meetings and is going regularly. But, he continues to drink and says he thinks he's one of 'those other types'......"

Well, it sure sounds to me that I need to start going to Al-Anon again.
But, I'd still like your thoughts on why you think you're an Alcoholic, not one of 'those other types'.....

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I dont believe one is very sure upon arrival. "Strange as it may seem, I may be", said the Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict. And "Most of us have been unwilling to admit" we were real alcoholics. I would say it takes a lot of AA Meetings. That's where I really became Powerless. Never-mind the 25 years leading up to AA, it seems like they were not enough. Even though I had lost everything during the above years, and everyone around me knew I was powerless. I didn't. Hearing the story of many drunks in AA brought about my conversion. It wasnt a bolt of lightning. I didn't have a sense that one day the lights came on. It was gradual and unnoticed for the most part. I liked coming here. That I knew from the begining. I knew you were drunks. Once I got here, it did not take long. I just don't know when-when was. That's ok. I came. I came to (out of a fog, to consciousness). And I came to believe. It happend in God's time. Not my time.