For me it wasn't a rock bottom as much as a perfect storm:my #1 drinking buddy quit drinking, my kids were getting to the age so they would know that I was drinking, and my marriage was reaching a new level of unsatisfactory.
There were other reasons and many "moments of clarity" along the way. Decades before I quit drinking I knew that I had to quit, I even took a month off here and there. I was wasting precious time. The hangovers were brutal. I liked the drinking but not being drunk. I felt powerless. I had friends who loved sobriety. I felt like I was on borrowed time before I got the DUI that I so richly deserved. My health was beginning to suffer--I was testing the limits of the awesome constitution that I am blessed with.
My last drink was strong microbrew. It was the night before Halloween, 2011. I was drinking off a hangover. They used to last all day, making everything seem like a torturous chore. The beer was good but it tasted like old grain in dishwater and I drank it anyways. I had another. There were still a couple left, not enough to get drunk. I left them in the fridge and went to bed.
In a couple of weeks it will be five years since I quit. I have no regrets. I don't miss drinking. I had been living alcoholic for so long that it was a huge change to straighten up. I was physically and mentally addicted so quitting was certainly no picnic, especially in the first month or so, but I was done. It no longer did anything good for me and it was good to let it go.