Originally Posted by
Fubarcdn 
If you want to quit drinking just don't drink. Pass on that first drink.
This is a different, but equally as valid, experience as my own. I can appreciate someone having a different experience.
I found that just not drinking left me, after a time, more miserable than before. I learned that there is a whole group of drinkers who define alcoholism as the inability to just not drink.
Originally Posted by AA Big Book, 1st Ed.
How many time people have said to us: "I can take it or leave it alone. Why can't he?" "Why don't you drink like a gentleman or quit?" "That fellow can't handle his liquor." "Why don't you try beer and wine?" "Lay off the hard stuff." "His will power must be weak." "He could stop if he wanted to." "She's such a sweet girl, I should think he'd stop for her sake." "The doctor told him that if he ever drank again it would kill him, but there he is all lit up again."
Now these are commonplace observations on drinkers which we hear all the time. Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. We see that these expressions refer to people whose reactions are very different from ours.