I know what you mean. I have drank since I was 18, and extremely heavily at times, but it was my mom's death when I was 51 that sent my drinking skidding off the rails.
It wasn't the the reason I drank. But the grief of losing her and the stress of handling her estate added to my drinking. Something "shifted" in my alcohol use and it was downhill from there.
Glad I stopped when I did.