First I wanted to quit just before I turned 40 (I drank alcoholically through my 30s, not much before) but that didn't work out. Now 6 years later, at 46, I'm using a very different approach and feel determined it'll last.
Why? I had plenty of negative effects on my physical and mental health. And while my life never fell apart in big ways, the drinking was limiting the realization of my potentials and goals in very serious ways, and for way too long. I started a bunch of exciting new things (mostly career) in 2020 and knew if I continued drinking, nothing would go very far and I would regret it sorely later, much like I regretted the opportunities I didn't grab earlier in my life, or probably even more as we don't keep getting them forever, time does run out. Acutely, a relatively short and fast mental health spiral led to my quit almost 6 weeks ago: I did and said things intoxicated that were really scary, and I knew continuing it would likely lead to growing chaos. I actually feared that the mental health episode was more serious and complex than just the effect of my drinking, but stopping and changing a few things in life lifestyle resolved the "crisis" pretty fast, so now I'm confident the main contributors were the alcohol and not getting out at all for days in a row. Of course I wish I had gotten sober much earlier, but this wasn't a bad moment either and I'm grateful it didn't happen at a "bottom" point, more during a larger progressive period in my life, which inspired me. So, based on my own experience, I would definitely not recommend to anyone to wait for any kind of personal crash to get sober, although the chaos in the world in 2020 did provide incentive and motivation for me. Ride the current I guess
