Why Don't You Try Recovering From Yourself?

Recovered: (simple past tense of recover) - to get better, regain one's health.

There's a sentence in the one of our main books that says ". . . men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body."  It's a good sentence, a good, solid, proud sentiment.  Every now and then I hear a member introduce themselves in a meeting by saying "Hi, I'm Seaweed and I'm a recovered alcoholic" in lieu of the standard "I'm an alcoholic" greeting.  Frankly, I think these people are under the impression that they're a little more special than the rest of us but really . . . who gives a shit, right?  Say whatever you want.  I had a buddy in The Old Town explain that saying the "I'm an alcoholic" part was a personal affirmation for his ears,  not the group's ears.  He didn't care if the group thought he was an alcoholic, which still makes me laugh today

There are a handful of people here in Vacation City who have taken this weird, militant stance about saying "recovered."  Whenever one of them chairs a meeting the talk inevitably gets around to how much crap they've taken for saying using the qualifier "recovered."  Frankly, I don't believe them - I've never heard anyone object to that word in my time in The Program.  I think these people want to stand out.  In Chicago I used to say that I was an alcoholic and an addict - true words but I see today that I wanted to be worse than everyone else, a dude who heroically overcame two obstacles.

Seaweed.  Garden Variety Drunk