When I faced the music, when I looked back at my own life, and other people's lives as recounted on SR on a daily basis, when I looked at the medical statistics on alcohol-related illness and death, and asked myself, "where does all this lead?" -- that's when I finally came to understand what had been staring me in the face for quite some time.
Drinking's not ultimately about having fun. After awhile, it's about blacking out and going off the rails and waking up to severe physical illness and self-loathing and anxiety. Long-term it's about depression, undermined self-esteem, broken relationships and missed opportunities, and premature death. It's not just the next four hours I'm affecting when I pick up; instead, it's my whole life.
Avoiding relapse has been a lot easier since then.