For me, I used alcohol as a tool to cope with problems. It turned out that the tool was causing me more harm than what I was using it to fix. After I put down the alcohol, all the problems were still there and needed to be sorted out. The great thing was though, that being sober meant that I could slowly sort these things out overtime.
Somebody once said that, being a drunk is like being lost at sea for years. We can't expect to just stop rowing and find ourselves back at shore.