But What About The Real Alcoholic
But What About The Real Alcoholic

RAW Recovery Podcast

The episode focuses on what AA’s Big Book means by a "real alcoholic", contrasting different drinking patterns and sharing personal experiences with responsibility and spiritual struggle. It blends humour and candid reflection to help people question what truly happens when they drink.

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28:19•12 Sept 2026

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But What About the Real Alcoholic?

Episode Overview

Being a "real alcoholic" is defined by loss of control once drinking starts, not by how much is drunk or how extreme the life consequences look.
Moderate and hard drinkers may change their behaviour or stop with strong reasons, while alcoholics cannot reliably do so once alcohol is in their system.
Recovery involves moving from denial and blame towards looking, admitting, and accepting responsibility for past actions.
Step Nine calls for amends that are generous and honest, without taking over responsibility for other people’s wellbeing.
Shifting the question from "Am I as bad as that person?" to "What happens when I drink?" can help someone recognise their own condition more clearly.

“When I start to drink, I did not get in trouble every time I drank. But every time I was in trouble, I had been drinking.”

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol? This RAW Recovery Podcast episode looks straight at that question by unpacking what the Big Book means by a "real alcoholic" and why that label has nothing to do with how much someone drinks or how dramatic their consequences look on the surface.

Hosted in a relaxed, chatty style – complete with wet-hair complaints, cat medication strategies, and live comments from the online audience – the conversation keeps things down-to-earth while focusing on some heavy AA basics.

Dion reads from pages 20–21 of the Big Book, contrasting moderate and hard drinkers with the "page 21 drunk" who "begins to lose all control of liquor consumption once he starts to drink." He makes the distinction personal with lines like, "I never drank moderately" and, "When I start to drink, I did not get in trouble every time I drank.

But every time I was in trouble, I had been drinking." You’ll hear him work through the daily reflection on responsibility and Step Nine, wrestling with ideas about taking responsibility for past actions without trying to control other people’s wellbeing. There’s humour in his defiance – "I am a real alcoholic.

For reals, I am an alcoholic" – but also seriousness as he talks about spiritual warfare as "a fight for your fucking soul" and the fear of freedom that comes with recovery. The episode feels aimed at anyone unsure whether their drinking fits the "real alcoholic" description, as well as those already in AA trying to relate more deeply to the Big Book.

Dion’s stories about early hospital stays, family experiences, and his daughter’s "peace and serenity" offer relatable snapshots of recovery in everyday life. If you’ve ever found yourself asking "Am I as bad as that person?" this conversation might nudge you toward the more useful question: "What happens when I drink?"

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