Hitting rock bottom
 

Well don't know how long this post will last, but as you will know from this post I am not promoting anything as I was last night as such.

Think its 50 times harder for alcoholics to give up drink if they visit a doctor knowing that they haven't reached the last walk as they say, in other words you have LFT's and it comes back that at this stage your liver is not damaged and the doctor says if you carrying drinking like you are the liver will be damaged.
Now to me this is the hardest stage of trying to give up because people at this stage DO think right I will carry on drinking because I am so called fit and healthy.

Many alcoholics do tend to ignore this advice and carry on regardless, don't know if I am making much sense but my point is do people with addiction actually only discover the true risks when its to late.

I personally think unless you hit rock bottom or get a good kick up the back side or a life scare people will carry on struggling to give up this horrible addiction.

For quite some time I felt like something was wrong with me and went to the doctor a couple of times only to find out that nothing was out of the 'normal' range. Around here, they won't do much unless your dying. I continued to drink with the feeling that nothing is messed up yet, even though I felt awful all the time. I'm glad I am finally listening to my body, because you will catch problems before the doctors do.

well I stopped because I hurt a person that I was close to very badly and this was my beginning. I never went to a Dr to get my levels checked. For me I did not want to live on in missery hurting people and I just wanted to stop.

I think one can look in a mirror and find rock bottom. It all depends on what you are looking for and what truths you are willing to accept. Its hard to hit rock bottom if you're tumbling down a bottomless pit and you aren't aware you're even falling.

I think rock bottom can mean many things, including losing your job, losing your house, living rough,etc, you have to say wouldn't this keep people drinking.
I personally think their are way to many people who wait for that SCARE from the hospital/doctor to say you have liver disease & cirrhosis before they decide to make an attempt to give up, and as we all know cirrhosis is irreversible.

Alcoholics don't actually enjoy drink it just comes to that point that its part of their life and without it their body breaks down, difference in needing & wanting, also I think another major factor is obviously the withdrawal side of things which is a stinker.

Hitting rock bottom doesn't have to be something as serious as losing your home/job/spouse/fill in the blank. As I heard someone once say, "Hitting rock bottom is when you decide to stop digging". I stopped digging when I had the best job of my life, was financially secure, and in good physical health. My relationships weren't where I wanted them to be though, and I knew I could improve those, as well as the aforementioned, if I got sober.

Hey now Gwizz,

All people are different. What antecedent which will make one person address addiction may not affect another. Personally, I hit rock bottom, again and again - I got sick and tired of being sick and tired. When someone has had enough, then they'll address whatever addictions they've acquired.... A lot of times medical issues are not enough - one doesn't scare an alcoholic or an addict...

All people are different exactly you said it yourself, every alcoholic is different in some sort of way, you are not the same as the next alcoholic, each alcoholic will address a different issue on a day to day basis.
Around 20 % of alcoholics recovered in the UK last year which means these people new its their time get shot of this addiction.

People are more scared of living without booze than actually trying to go through withdrawal..