I know I was an alcoholic because I was preoccupied whether alcohol was going to be served or not.

But my activities have been pretty much focused in the last almost 30 years on the recovery, of my own recovery, the understanding for my family of my recovery.

I feel it's important to be active. People who retire, sit by their swimming pool and golf course and plan to relax have a very empty life.

My makeup wasn't smeared, I wasn't disheveled, I behaved politely, and I never finished off a bottle, so how could I be alcoholic?

I don't feel that because I'm First Lady, I'm very different from what I was before. It can happen to anyone. After all, it has happened to anyone.

And I have always told the patients when I talk to them. When they come around and say, "What will you have to drink? Oh that's right you don't drink." Just speak up and say, 'Of course I drink. But I just don't drink alcohol.'

I really didn't want to have my name on the center, because it just seemed like it was too much of a personal thing.