Hi 917 -
For me, I finally was honest with myself that my plan wasn't working. I stopped trying to control my drinking and just listened to others and did what I was told to do in my program of recovery, which is AA.
It made absolutely no sense to me for about the first 18 months of sobriety, but then I started to understand that my problem was a "thinking" problem, not a drinking problem. Through my program of recovery (which includes SR + helping other alcoholics), I learned the tools to change my thinking. That has made me crave alcohol much much less and made me happy to be in recovery.