Hi Karl
I can't answer for anyone else but it didn't take any special intelligence for me to quit. I was dying.
It didn't take any special intelligence for me to stay quit either.
Intelligence was a hurdle for a long time tho.
I'd said for years that with eveythimg else I'd achieved I'd beat booze too. I'd tame it, I'd control it.
I'd master the way of drinking that 'normal people' had....non obsessional, non extreme, no courting oblivion, take it or leave it.
I'd fought to a standstill.
Finally....after 20 years or so...I fundamentally and honestly surrendered - I accepted this was one fight I could not win.
Alcohol and I had an intrinsically toxic relationship.
There was no way for me to keep alcohol in my life in any viable sense.
I felt joyless and grey for a while...then about 3 months in from quitting, my head cleared and I became more and more aware of a me I'd totally forgotten about.
I think everyone deserves to rediscover that authentic person again.
Its been a great voyage of self discovery rather than self destruction
D