Top 5 Alcoholics Anonymous Phrases That Are Bullshit (Pt.3)

Since there’s already been a Part 1 and Part 2 of this list — with an explanation of why I bothered to list them in the first place — I will jump right in…..

5. Maybe they’re not a real alcoholic?

When AA members hear about someone who has gotten sober without AA and has done well in the process, they like to say, “Maybe they weren’t a real alcoholic.”

Many don’t like to believe that someone chose a different path and found sobriety another way.

First, there’s no such thing as a “real alcoholic.” No one, given the right set of circumstances and/or trauma is immune to abusing alcohol. It’s not something you are born to be — or not to be.

Alcohol use and abuse exist on a spectrum, which we now refer to as Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). No defined threshold makes someone an “alcoholic.”

There is only mild, moderate, and severe AUD — with a potentially unlimited amount of levels that may exist in between.

Some may say that being an “alcoholic” is the same as having severe AUD — but what about someone mild to moderate?