I was wondering with Golem if I had the perk sturdy and used double-edge, whether that would count as the attack, or whether that it only counted when the opponent attacked you? It is probably a stupid question but i'm gonna ask anyway because the explanation says 'attack'.
No because each Recoil move is set to how much recoil you'll receive. Such as Double-Edge does 1/3 recoil damage and that isn't enough so bring it down to Sturdy level and it breaks Sturdy. Sturdy does not prevent recoil damage from making the user faint.