Originally Posted by
JeffreyAK 
I think there's a fundamental problem with trying to logically rationalize stopping drinking by looking for answers to questions like these, certainly before you've stopped drinking for a good while and seen how things are on the other side. Weighing things in the balance, developing a warm cozy feeling about quitting, how great it will be, what you'll do in this or that situation, having everything lined up, etc., just doesn't ever work in my experience - quitting just plain sucks at first, if you're an addict, and there's no way around that reality. We cannot think our way out of a drinking problem, because that very same drinking problem clouds our rational logical thoughts that would otherwise let us see how illogical it is to think our way out of addiction. The one and only way out is to stop, not tomorrow or next week but now.
For people with a minimal drinking problem, perhaps it makes more sense, but the same reality applies: You won't know what is and isn't a real issue until you quit and stick with it for a while. Otherwise, it sounds a lot like rationalizing continuing to drink, by waiting until you have all those answers in hand before you stop. You might wind up waiting until you die.
there seems to be a lot of that around here, the cart before the horse mentality. People rationalizing drinking because they aren't "fixed" yet, as if fixing all the problems will make quitting easier. Quitting isn't easy period, no matter how much you think you've got your **** together.
Quitting is hard for the mentally ill, it's hard for the poor, it's hard for the rich, its hard for successful people, for people with no support and people with tons. It's just hard. Once you're addicted there is just a storm to go through at first and it's an equal opportunity storm, sort of like mother nature, it happens no matter where you are in life.
Only way out is through. If you want to go out in liver failure, accidents, suicide and loss of everything important, stay drunk. Some people clearly make that choice. That's why drunks go out like that. There was never a right time to quit. If people want to do that it is their choice, but coming here and making the statement that they can't quit because of xyz is dishonest. People are not unable to quit, they are simply making the choice to drink.