Nonsensical, I've related this story of mine before, but it seems apropos here. I wasn't given an ultimatum, but more of an opinion or an analysis. If I were to continue drinking, sooner or later I would lose my marriage, the respect of my children, my home, my job, and then things would start going downhill after that. So, I got to make a choice, then and there.
It didn't feel like an ultimatum, more a statement of fact. It was laid out for me as something I could choose, something within my power to change. I was asked to make that choice. Maybe that is why I continue to see it as a choice, even to this day. There was no 'or else', more a prediction or some third party insight into the near future.