My drinking patterns changed over the decades of drinking.
I remember in those days when I was underage I was absolutely terrified of ending up in a dwi wreck. Even something that I didn't cause but being involved with the cops being able to prove i was drinking.
Right before I had any alcohol in my body I would say I'm going to control my drinking tonight and not drive home wasted. Maybe I could order a water after every couple of beers. Once I had a drink the allergy, the phenomenon of craving would take over. Time and time again I would end up hammered. Once the alcohol is in me i am different person that does not care about consequences. Not only driving drunk but I would drive crazy when younger. Sometimes end up in a street race. Like it was a video game. Fortunately I only did minimal damage to the car in some minor scrapes. Mostly single car stuff I would laugh about. One fender bender I talked my way out of and paid for without the cops getting involved. My lawyer got my first DWI pleaded down to a reckless driving. Between that and my regular speeding and careless driving and all that stuff I lost my license 3 times by the time I was 23 years old. I drove drunk and suspended after that sometimes anyway. The good old days before all this technology. At least driving suspended seemed to make me drive more careful. I knew if I got pulled over I was toast so I drove carefully. Then I got my license back and continued to drive like I was suspended. I figured if the cops can't pull me over they can't give me a ticket, amazing!
As I got older I got more paranoid. This really killed my social life because I was terrified of dwi so i avoided a lot of stuff. Sometimes I would go anyway and try to control my drinking with mixed results. Many times I would hang in there long enough to keep a little buzz until I could get somewhere safe and drink the way that I like to drink.
One thing that probably made me safer in the old days was if i scored cocaine before I drove home from the bar. Then I wouldn't mess around in the car. Not only terrified of getting busted but also terrified of not being able to do more coke. My AV would justify doing coke so I could drive home safer.
Long story but I stopped doing hard drugs for years. Then I stupidly got back into it in my mid 30s or so. I was usually pretty good at avoiding driving drunk and when I did I didn't drive like a lunatic. One of the only reasons I would drive drunk is if I was drunk and suddenly felt like I needed drugs. In those days I would of sworn that I wouldn't do drugs in a given night and only hours later there I would be. Drunk and driving in a bad part of town spending money that I shouldn't. Finally I got busted again and this time they charged me with felony possession as well as dwi and drug offenses that I didn't even think of. School zone and such.
The 2nd dwi arrest I wasnt even really speeding or doing anything that should get me pulled over. Rich area late at night, almost home with the goods. Boom, total shock and terror once I saw him hit the lights. He's stopping me, really? Holy..... what am I going to do now?