I'm not an alcoholic

I've been dealing with a few un-bloggable personal problems lately. I now understand why people retreat to the bottle as a coping mechanism. I see how alcohol provides an escape. In the past few weeks, I noticed I was drinking for all the wrong reasons. I've not gotten drunk, but my motivation was definitely wrong. So yesterday I consciously decided to drink no alcohol, and went on a bike ride instead. The experts always recommend exercise as a healthy way to handle stress, and I expected it to be a little bit incomplete. Like when they say you should snack on carrot sticks instead of carrot cake, it's just not the same. I was pleasantly surprised to see that exercise really is effective -- even better than alcohol.

Therefore, I see two reasons that I can proclaim my non-dependency:
1) I recognized when alcohol was becoming a problem for me
2) I found a healthier way to handle the urge to drink

Now all I have to do is maintain the good habit.