Originally Posted by
SaxaBoru 
How did you eventually come to realise you needed to sober up? Did you have to reach that conclusion yourself or did friends/family have to step in?
I
realized I needed to sober up in my 20s, because I could not control my drinking and it was causing too much pain. I realized this on my own.
I started to
take action to sober in my mid 40s. Again, the pain was simply too great and had grown worse. I realized this on my own. However, my father is a recovering alcoholic, so I had a heads up on making the drinking-life problems connection. I knew what the classic symptoms of alcoholism were. If you Google "Are you an alcoholic" it should bring up several tests one can take to help them decided if they are an alcoholic.
Family and friends can help illuminate the problem, but don't be surprised if the deny a problem and then get really drunk.