bbthumper

When I was drinking even when I did not want to. Id wake up with an honest desire and make a firm resolution to not drink that day. By 4 o'clock id be stopping at the liqour store after work and opening the bottle before I even got home.

FBL

When I flipped out at work with a severe panic attack and checked myself into the emergency room. While I lay there with an IV tube sticking in me, I had an "epiphany" and realized that after a nearly 30-year drinking career, I could never drink again. That was well over three years ago and my life is better today than at any other time in my adult life.

We can and DO recover!

Hexipuff

I knew over 20 years ago
When did I accept it and do something about it - just over 4 months ago

I truely understand what is meant by restore my sanity -because I had over 20 years of insanity

No good being depressed over it though. Each sober day is a gift

bryangt

Was not an everyday drinker. But over the years...accumulated 3 DUI's and probably should have had many more. 3 DUI's means jail & loss of license for 10 years in NJ. No deals, no time off for good behavior, no breaks. "How did this happen to me?"...oh, yeah, I like to drink. Knowing what I was about to lose, I could not go on as I was...even if it was just weekends. I had no control over alcohol--I was powerless over alcohol. And yes, my life was unmanageable.

Itchy

When it took more alcohol to get normal, not drunk in the morning, than it used to take for me to get totally wasted at night. About five years before that I knew I could not quit but it was OK until that last bit happened two years before I was able to quit, and now two years sober I will never go back. I am free!

Bluebird1927

When I could see my life falling apart but chose the drink over my loved ones
Also looking back over ten years and realising the longest I've gone without getting drunk is 60 odd days, drink really has taken over my life.

To sum it up, I realised I have no control over alcohol, IT controls me

Edabisco

I knew for a long time too, but it was only when I got medical information saying I had liver problems as a result of drinking. For me doing stupid stuff only encouraged me to stop drinking for a few days. I had many a hungover morning looking up AA meeting times or reading sobriety literature only to be off the wagon by the next weekend. And I think I romanticized the bad times too much as somehow being "artistic" or "bohemian," but the nitty-gritty medical thing was scary, but also weirdly anti-climactic, and for whatever reason different enough from hungover shame.

Mel12

That's me.

SoberCAH

I told a friend when I was around 18, and had just started serious drinking, that I was a potential alcoholic.

I drank for 13 more years and then got sober.

In the interim, though, I knew I had a drinking problem and that I was an alcoholic.

I thought that, if I wasn't an alcoholic, I couldn't imagine what one would have to do, that I wasn't already doing, to be an alcoholic.

But, I also thought that, because I was an alcoholic, I was supposed to drink.

Happier

I was a little like the proverbial "frog slowly being boiled" . I sat and enjoyed the ever warming water for quite some time before reluctantly realizing that it was leading to a horrible end. I guess it became obvious when I started hiding bottles in various places. I still continued for a few more years though. (It still makes me sad to type that.)
My wife appropriately confronted me on a couple of occasions which helped to confirm my concerns. I am thankful to her for that.

Ranger05

Alcohol has truly never caused me a bit of trouble in my life to be perfectly honest. I have been a 6-8 beer a night drinker for prolly 20 years now. My liver is good, finances are fine, blah, blah, and so on. What brought my drinking into question for me was how I was starting to look. I'm about 6 foot and ballooned to over 260 lbs!! No doubt, being over 40 now, the beer had finally caught up with me.

So I started weight watchers were you track everything you eat and drink. I got like 50 points a day to spend however I wanted and I always reserved 30 points for my 8 beers. So that left me 20 points for food. I made it work even with my beers and have lost 35 lbs so far and feel great!

So for me, it's a health think. And a little vanity to be honest. I just don't wanna look like a big ol tub a goo.

BillyWeaver

Words of wisdom.

wes1

I realized I had a problem when I couldn't function without alcohol. I quit when I couldn't function with or without alchohol.

oak

I have had many moments of realizing it's a problem. I first quit when I was 18 and I don't remember exactly why I was concerned then.
Last year- sitting on my kitchen floor drinking rum out of the bottle, because standing up and putting it in a glass would have taken too much time. (I had been hiding it in a low kitchen cabinet.) I remember thinking that I looked like an alcoholic. It was a huge realization for me.
Also, drinking just makes me want more. An empty hole in me that cannot be filled up with alcohol. I really got that last spring.

Live2Run25

When I drank 6 bottles of wine in 8 hours and was still coherent... I quit the next day and haven't drank since.. almost 4 months ago.

Stellasgroove

This is me except it took more than 4 times to blackout. The last time I nearly hurt my husband badly and was going to take pillars. But I femme very little. Day 9 and I don't hate myself in the mornings. I know i can do this

ADS20012012

When I started to "black-out" from drinking, more often than not. That's when I knew I had problem. Getting a DUI is a close 2nd.

Misguided

When I could see that the reflection in the mirror was not the same person standing in front of the mirror.

I hurt someone I loved in a way I would never want anyone to be hurt. It took 3 weeks after that for me to realize alcohol was turning me into someone I didn't want to be and never, in a million years, thought I would end up as.

Athena1

Before I ever drank, knowing I had 2 way out of control alcoholic parents, one out of control alcoholic grandparent, and 3 almost out of control alcoholic grandparents...I knew the first time I drank and felt the urge to drink till I passed out that alcohol and I would, uhhh...have a complicated relationship, at best, if I ever drank again.

Leo17

When I realized that I've blown so many wonderful opportunities in my life to alcohol. It killed my drive to the things that matter most, work, family, regular everyday stuff. My relationships and finances were suffering. When people would ask me what I did for fun I would realize the only thing that came to mind was drink beer. I was just tired of living ashamed of myself....