Originally Posted by
least 
...you had to stop drinking cause it was making your life unmanageable.
Here is something to consider, least, for you and the original poster. Is it drinking that is making my life unmanageable? If so, then my solution is to not drink.
But what if it is the fact that I'm powerless
not to drink? Now I enter a whole new level of unmanageability. I can't drink, because I know where it leads (I have an allergy and my off switch is broken), and I can't keep from drinking.
Now I've got a dilemma that the Big Book talks about. Lack of power. I have to have that power to not drink, but I don't have that power. Now I'm screwed big time.
The rest of the steps lead out from that point.