One thing that Behold talked about really jumped out at me, that is the aspect of age and ressillience. From my own experience the ability to "bounce back" from benders of epic proportions does drastically change as one gets older. I wonder if there isn't some type of cunulative thing going on here. Could it be that each subsequent detox episode adds to the equation or is it just that we're getting too old for this ****.
I attended my first rehab in 1991 but never actually threw in the towel until 2008. In 1991 my ability to bounce back was still good but as I got older things changed. The withdrawal symptoms such as subliminal anxiety and depression started to linger, then gradually became the norm instead of the exception. In a sense by 2008 my deck of cards had run out of the ability or desire to go thru all of that detox nonsense even one more time. I was born in 1957 so I guess that would make me 50 something.