On my fourth day sober a sewer backed up into my basement, COMPLETLY flooding it. It was a holiday (Labor Day) and it took hours to get the Township crew out to pump out the sewer. I had several inches of sewage in my basement (which a neighbor and I had waded through before we realized the source). I called someone I'd met at one of my first AA meetings, and also my ex-husband (who has 30 years but didn't know I was in recovery). They got me calmed down a bit. Finally, I sat down with my nerves jangling, to watch a movie I'd just bought. The DVD wouldn't play!
At 10:30 pm, four days almost to the minute from my last drink, my doorbell rings, and it's my neighbor, who thrusts a cold beer into my hand, saying, "I figured you could use this." It was like in the movies, where time stands still. I've got the cold beer in my hand. I thought, well, I could take it, and then throw it out like I did the rest of the booze in the house. Somehow, I heard myself saying, "No thanks, I really don't want it." She looked at me with concern, and said, "Are you SURE?" I said, "Yeah, I'm just gonna try to calm down and get some rest."
THAT was the moment I knew I was gonna be OK.
It's been two years since my last drink, and I've flashed back to that moment a few times.
It wasn't my own willpower that kept me from that drink.