I drunk when I was allowed to - on my 18th birthday. I'd already been through some difficult life experiences and i never did handle them - drink meant I didn't have to. I very seldom intended to drunk, it always just happened, right from the off, I didn't have a stop button.
It used to be just weekends, just holidays, just socialising, though I couldn't stop once I started, I could choose when to start, and eventually (about 10 years later) choose when not to as I recognised my patterns. It was a limited control, but enough for me to function. Another 10 years has passed and I had somehow forgotten about choosing not to start. Then came the physical symptoms in stopping. And the glaring truth in why that is.
How did this happen? Time, money, pts, divorce, opportunity, socially, stress, boredom, loneliness, sleep aid, depression, I never looked into another way to cope - i didn't have to when I had a bottle by my side.