Sometimes I think we need a  new vocabulary here, because the meanings of the words "addiction" and  "alcoholism" become awfully vague and open-ended when these are used  to categorize behaviors as dissimilar as knitting or stamp  collecting with needing to pour a stiff shot of vodka with trembling hands at  6:00 AM to calm one's stomach and nerves. Been there, done that. But it's also an exercise in factual  futility to make these terms specifiable and quantifiable, and so generalize  from particular cases to a set of norms that apply to everyone.

Here's my favorite story  about that. A friend of mine is a  retired DJ and music reporter from Hartford, CT. One night in the 1970s he and  his wife were covering a concert in Boston by the classical pianist, Artur  Rubinstein, who was then about 87. To their surprise, Rubinstein's goon picked  them out of the crowd of reporters and invited them into his dressing room for a  pre-concert interview. As they talked, Rubinstein  reached into the cabinet and pulled out a jug of Scotch, from which he poured a  large tumbler full to the brim. Then, like a linebacker quaffing Gatorade on the  bench, he sucked down the whole thing in one long gulp. He then went out and  electrified his audience for the next two hours.

Alcohol affects different  people in different ways. This video clip is Rubinstein in his last recital in  London at the age of 89 with, assuming his routine went as usual, a good 10 or  12 ounces of Scotch under his belt:

Now I for one can't drink  without becoming desperately ill, and I sure as heck can't play the piano. But I  don't begrudge those who can, and I say that when a man can play like that at  89, he can drink anything and as much of it as he wants. Maybe those of us who  say there must be one measure for all are just being sorry for ourselves because  we can't.

I'll be happy to tell you my  recovery story, and I'll be glad to listen to yours. But under no circumstances  does "I did" necessarily imply that "You should." Yet for some strange reason we  alkies seem to have a mental block that prevents us from making that distinction  very clearly. Nevertheless, if the shoe fits...