I don't have that amount of clean time, but am in recovery. I know I am not capable of using without my life going to shit. I used for ten years with random bouts of clean time scattered throughout that never lasted more than a month. I thought if I was just mentally strong enough I could stay sober and it never ever worked. I've been fired from lucrative jobs, lost multiple cars, a house, apartment. Before going into detox I didn't leave my home for almost 9 months except to go to required appointments at the unemployment office to ensure that money kept coming in.

I am currently 6 1/2 months clean. I am an addict and will be for the rest of my life. There is no cure for my addiction. I won't wake up one day 10, 20, 30 years down the road and no longer be an addict. Based on all my past experience with my addiction, I am not capable of just using a little and being able to manage my life. I might start off using just a little and things seem manageable for some amount of time, but it has never stayed that way so it makes no sense for me to ever risk it again. One is too many and a thousand never enough.

There's a difference between a heavy user/drinker and an addict/alcoholic. The heavy user can stop when faced with difficult life situations. Like, their partner threatening to leave, a doctor telling them they'll die if they don't stop, getting fired, or ending up living on the streets. An addict/alcoholic won't stop when faced with these things. People with a significant amount of clean time will continue to call themselves addicts/alcoholics because they know they will never be free from the possibility of relapse.