once the recovering drunk finally realizes
That it is true. If I go back out, there is a chance that I may die with a bottle in my hand. So easy to deceive myself and think, this could never really happen to me. Yet, I had two friends in AA recently that returned to drinking with the liquid devil and did just that, died with a bottle of booze in their hands. Both were only around 50 years old. I'm not unique.
Mountainmanbob