I Will Always Be an Alcoholic

WHEN I WAS about to begin my Fourth Step, my counselor in the treatment center told me to bring him a list of what I thought I was--in order of importance. The first two things on that list were: (1) I am an alcoholic; (2) I am a woman. I do not recall what else I put down. Whatever the rest of the list contained, it was probably changed in three years--except for those two things, which I will always be. The use of my intelligence, my marital status, my profession, my appearance all may change; but I will always be an alcoholic and a woman in the same degree I am now.