notfixable

what was the final straw where you losing your job...friends...family...life...what made you stop for today....

Dee74

I nearly died.
That's a pretty good reason.

The trouble is a lot of people kinda wait for something like that - and it's not always guaranteed that you'll survive to get sober. I was very lucky.

how are you doing notfixable - have you stopped drinking yet?

D

yukonm

I began my journey when standing in front of a judge and he gave me an opportunity to avoid going to prison by sentencing me to court appointed probation, random urine testing, mandatory 12-step meetings and a drug and alcohol class.
That was on Aug 21, 2007. A miracle happened and I embraced the AA program. What started out as a way to avoid prison has turned into so much more. My probation ended last year and my record is now clean. I have learned a new way of living and life couldn't be better. When I saw those flashing lights in my rear-view mirror, I thought it was the worse day of my life.......instead it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.

Gottalife

Essentially I was done with drinking and ready to go to any lengths to stop. Being at deaths door, I finally realised the seriousness of my situation. I didn't stop for today, I was ready to stop for good.

Starflyer

Personally, I never had any of those things. I decided it was time for change when I realized the withdrawal symptoms were growing to encompass me. I started to drink everyday in order to keep the symptoms at bay. This pattern went on for far too long. This hurt my wallet, my self-esteem, and most importantly, my health. I gained weight, looked horrible, and spent a lot of time feeling hungover. My grades at college suffered terribly. My work ethic started to slip. I started to engage in a reclusive life just to tame the beast instead of endearing a fun night hanging out with my family.

bigsombrero

I also had several health scares in a very short period of time. First my brain went to mush. My body followed suit. I was not invincible, and I could not keep up with the abuse either mentally or physically. The jig was up.

Wastinglife

Job loss...Bankruptcy...eviction...jail...hospitals... pretty much rock-bottom. I had no choice really but to quit. My next step was probably death.

BarbieKen

Well said Mike. My reason is nothing new, except to me. I had tried all these stupid ways of "controlling" my drinking. Surprise, Surprise it wasn't working. Last November, standing with my husband in the parking lot of a Trader Joe's, something ( now I know it was my Higher Power) directed me in a conversation with my husband. Seriously, my mouth was talking about going into de-tox, and than rehab. My brain kicked in, and we went into the store where I bought my usual case of wine for the week. Two days later, I'm on the phone with Kaiser. Ok, I'll go down to Sunset offices to talk. I broke down and just surrendered, I knew I was done with alcohol. DONE. :-D. Bobbi

Sisterella

When I realized that I was having to freeze wine, that I wanted to use in spaghetti sauce I planned to cook the following day, just to keep me from drinking it the night before.... As I stood there the next day, watching my wine-icle defrost in the sauce, the realization of how bad my problem was finally clicked in ... my full reasons of "why" are much more broad, deeper, and spiritual than that, but that was my "ah-ha" moment.

My ultimate reason for not drinking now is because, for ME PERSONALLY, my drinking does not bring glory to God. Took me a while for me to get my head around the thought, but once I did, that precept alone has given me more strength to stay strong than any other reason I had quit in the past.

Spinach

Like so many I had wanted and failed miserably I became unwell and had to try to claw as many years for my wife and children. The biggest single factor that helped was this place .
John.

DarkDays

Because I could see where it was all going , downwards.

ippochick

because I finally got down to the stage where I chose family and life, or alcohol.

I really had no choice if I wanted to live.

Elisabeth888

This sounds so trite, but because I wanted to. I had a lot of consequences and drank through, with, and at them. I just got sick of it.

Huxley

In pain every day, eating our savings up with coke. Ugh. Reading here and really understanding that 'functioning alcoholic' is a stage, not a condition, and seeing 'full-blown jobless homeless alcoholic' just over my horizon...

xx

GreenEggsAndHam

Because I was using it rather than enjoying it, and was having great difficulty not doing something that I was no longer enjoying. And because I knew it would be the death of me.

GroundhogDay

I had reached the limits of both my sanity and my body's ability to tolerate alcohol. Stress and panic over my life situation in combination with alcohol abuse were making me so miserable that I finally found the courage to make radical changes to my life. I have been blessed with the strong support of my husband and church. I'm not where I want to be yet, but I am making progress.

jazzfish

I had stopped enjoying every aspect of drinking except the camaraderie, but since I had no friends left that really made no sense. I could see the negative consequences piling up at an increasing rate, after years of being a successful, heavy drinking, functional alcoholic. My mental and physical states were rapidly declining and I could see the obvious end coming up. The real triggering event, however, was blowing three excellent job opportunities because I was no longer able to do my job properly.

tomsteve

my other choice was suicide.

GracieLou

I honestly have no idea. After 26 years I just had a moment and I did not want to just exist anymore. For the first time in a very long time, I wanted to live.

FeelingGreat

Because I knew I had to choose between stopping or going into a progressive decline that would take me lower than I ever wanted to go.