Like Dee said, stopping the alcohol can expose other mental illness. For alcoholics of my type, it also brings out my alcoholism. Each time I stopped drinking without doing something else in way of treatment, my life got miserable.
At the time I would have liked a mental illness to pin my problems on, but luckily for me my doctors wouldnt buy that one.
Closing in on 90days is a big achievement. I only managed that once, and most of it was time locked up in an institution. Funnily enough when I got to 90days with AA, it was a big milestone. I had worked steps up to step 10and my whole life had changed. That was the point at which I realised the desire to drink had left me.
I came relate to how slowly time seems to pass as we try to find out way out. I sometimes think the first 30 days was longer than the first 30years.