What drove you to stop drinking?
Member
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Probably my living room. Maybe my bedroom if I'm feeling lazy
Posts: 1,085
I drank to the point where the withdrawals/DTs put me in the ICU in a coma. I wasn't supposed to wake up, but for some reason, I did. Unfortunately, I know what it feels like to die. I never want to go through that again, not to mention what I put my family through. They had to literally plan my funeral. It makes me nauseas just typing that, knowing the pain I've caused the people that love me the most.
That experience was enough to get me to put down the bottle, go to rehab, and then join AA when I got back out into the real world.
That experience was enough to get me to put down the bottle, go to rehab, and then join AA when I got back out into the real world.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Burien WA.
Posts: 2,893
Hangovers were turning into shaky withdrawals, couldn't sleep, it just wasn't worth the small amount of enjoyment I got from drinking. My life is way more fun and productive with no alcohol. I keep really busy so don't think about it too much, if I let myself get bored is when it crosses my mind the most. Good luck with your journey
Mini Novel Post Writer
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Maine
Posts: 3,649
Amazingly, it wasn't the collection of horrific events that I had throughout my life where each time I said that I would quit. It came down to one morning alone in my kitchen standing in silence with my hands on the back of a chair.
My husband was sick of me, my daughter was sick of me. I looked at all the past events in my life and how I have lived so far due to my alcohol abuse. Then I finally realized that the five words that entered my mind due to that contemplation were probably some of, if not the most important, I have ever thought.
I am SICK of ME.
After 3 prior long term attempts and countless short term that's what sealed the deal. Finally.
My husband was sick of me, my daughter was sick of me. I looked at all the past events in my life and how I have lived so far due to my alcohol abuse. Then I finally realized that the five words that entered my mind due to that contemplation were probably some of, if not the most important, I have ever thought.
I am SICK of ME.
After 3 prior long term attempts and countless short term that's what sealed the deal. Finally.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Texas
Posts: 149
Like James I think this thread will be my lifeline when/if I start thinking about drinking again.
My reasons have already been mentioned (health, mental stability, self-loathing, embarrassing situations, regretful words, horrific hangovers, etc.). The final nail in the coffin was calling in "sick" to work (i.e. hungover) by using my daughter as an excuse. I told my boss she was sick when she wasn't. I always took pride in being what I thought was a wonderful mother. Thank God in that moment after I hung up the phone I recognized I could not be any kind of mother for either of my children if I was an alcoholic.
My reasons have already been mentioned (health, mental stability, self-loathing, embarrassing situations, regretful words, horrific hangovers, etc.). The final nail in the coffin was calling in "sick" to work (i.e. hungover) by using my daughter as an excuse. I told my boss she was sick when she wasn't. I always took pride in being what I thought was a wonderful mother. Thank God in that moment after I hung up the phone I recognized I could not be any kind of mother for either of my children if I was an alcoholic.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: against the grain
Posts: 746
It would literally take a book to fully elaborate on this question. And I had an experience that was like all of my past experiences flashing before me--about 25 years of drinking. I saw a series of friends and family members who had recently died due to alcohol-related complications. I saw my future. But I still was not quite able to stop. Then, by chance, I found the Sober Recovery site. Without much thought, I signed up and announced that I was quitting, that I was on night one. Within minutes I had a series of responses and encouragements. I have been sober every since (12 days). I still have a LOT of work to do, but this is how I got here.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Bklyn. NY
Posts: 1,859
In all my time sober, I never really gave this a whole lot of though... probably because it wasn't really a conscious, thought out decision. It was all I was offered as a solution to the pain I was experiencing. I guess the bottom line for me was I couldn't keep feeling the way I was feeling and had no other option than to stop drinking.
The last couple of months of my drinking were horrible. I couldn't leave the house and couldn't function at all. The last week I had stopped eating, I remember heating up some left over ravioli and nibbling on 2 of them to stay alive after not eating anything for a coule of days... I couldn't swallow... I got a phone call in my last week (pretty sure this was one of the big kickers that it was over for me), and after saying hello I tried to talk to the person but my nerves were so twisted I began to dry heave. I hung up the phone without explanation and couldn't answer it again. It was really bad. Anyhow, my last night of drinking I tied an extension cord around my neck with plans to hang myself, and just couldn't get up the nerve to do it. I reached out to my father for help, wanted to be put in a psych ward but somehow landed in a detox, and I was told that if I stopped drinking I would get better. As much as I wanted medication and/or a different solution, that's all I was offered. Stop drinking. With a recommendation of AA, a rehab, and outpatient treatment. I drank every single day and couldn't stop, so I knew drinking was a problem, but as far as I was concerned it was the very least of my problems, and the only thing I knew in the world that gave me any relief from all my other insanity. Did not want to let that go, but had no other option except to finish the job I started the last night of my drinking. I listened to what they told me, and they were right. I stopped drinking, and slowly but surely became a normal, functioning, useful, fun loving and grateful alcohol free person.
The last couple of months of my drinking were horrible. I couldn't leave the house and couldn't function at all. The last week I had stopped eating, I remember heating up some left over ravioli and nibbling on 2 of them to stay alive after not eating anything for a coule of days... I couldn't swallow... I got a phone call in my last week (pretty sure this was one of the big kickers that it was over for me), and after saying hello I tried to talk to the person but my nerves were so twisted I began to dry heave. I hung up the phone without explanation and couldn't answer it again. It was really bad. Anyhow, my last night of drinking I tied an extension cord around my neck with plans to hang myself, and just couldn't get up the nerve to do it. I reached out to my father for help, wanted to be put in a psych ward but somehow landed in a detox, and I was told that if I stopped drinking I would get better. As much as I wanted medication and/or a different solution, that's all I was offered. Stop drinking. With a recommendation of AA, a rehab, and outpatient treatment. I drank every single day and couldn't stop, so I knew drinking was a problem, but as far as I was concerned it was the very least of my problems, and the only thing I knew in the world that gave me any relief from all my other insanity. Did not want to let that go, but had no other option except to finish the job I started the last night of my drinking. I listened to what they told me, and they were right. I stopped drinking, and slowly but surely became a normal, functioning, useful, fun loving and grateful alcohol free person.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Kansas
Posts: 82
I quit a hundred times or more, all because of some consequence I was facing. I wanted things to be different and better, but the only way I could shut my head off was to get drunk. I had several spells of being "dry" without making any other changes, and I was absolutely miserable. What finally got me to start living a life of sobriety and making all the uncomfortable changes I was afraid to make was the simple fact that being drunk wasn't working at all anymore, and not being drunk wasn't working at all, either. The only thing I had left to change was myself. Its a work in progress, but I WANT it. I want to be different than I was, and this is the only possible way for me to do that.
Member
Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 426
Drinking what i thought was a moderate amount of wine but for some reason . . .my body rejected it . . .i threw up in the bathroom but instead of using the toilet i threw up ALL OVER MYSELF and the bathroom floor. I have never done that. Anyway we only have one bathroom in the house . . .needless to say . . .my husband told the kids the bathroom was off limits for the rest of the evening. How disgusting. I stayed in there most of the night . . .next day i could barely move. That was the final straw for me. Done.
Recovering ostrich
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida
Posts: 2,551
Initially I quit because I saw myself just drinking too much and waking up with a hangover at least twice a week and I didn't want to die like my father who died in a VA hospital, alone and from cirrhosis.
Now that I'm a little ways away from that place, I don't hate myself anymore, I actually like myself. And I like being sober! Less stress, better people, I know where my money is going even if I am still broke, my weekends aren't lost... The list could go on.
Now that I'm a little ways away from that place, I don't hate myself anymore, I actually like myself. And I like being sober! Less stress, better people, I know where my money is going even if I am still broke, my weekends aren't lost... The list could go on.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Mid-Atlantic USA
Posts: 2,441
Originally Posted by gramphil 
There's probably already a thread on this topic, but I wasn't able to find it. Would anyone share their experience of what drove them to stop drinking (or at least try)? For me, it was two things:
1. My older, and only, brother was an alcoholic who had no intention of stopping. He sold his car, gave up driving, and devoted himself to alcohol b/c he said it was the only thing he wanted to do. Well, a while back he died in his sleep at just 62. I could see something like that (or worse) happening to me.
2. A couple of weeks ago, I was carrying my dying little dog down the outside stone steps one night while drunk, I lost by balance at the top step, and fell all the way down. Managed to protect the dog with my body, but I was bruised and scraped from my shoulders to my shins. Used the healing time to ponder my life and future.
These are the reasons I'm here now.
1. My older, and only, brother was an alcoholic who had no intention of stopping. He sold his car, gave up driving, and devoted himself to alcohol b/c he said it was the only thing he wanted to do. Well, a while back he died in his sleep at just 62. I could see something like that (or worse) happening to me.
2. A couple of weeks ago, I was carrying my dying little dog down the outside stone steps one night while drunk, I lost by balance at the top step, and fell all the way down. Managed to protect the dog with my body, but I was bruised and scraped from my shoulders to my shins. Used the healing time to ponder my life and future.
These are the reasons I'm here now.
It's not worth the trouble.
Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Boston
Posts: 61
It was a long, slow burn for me, but ultimately two big things led to the end of the line for me:
1. I got a DUI and smashed the hell out of my car. This was not the scary part. The scary part was that it gave me zero pause; I was drunk again that night.
2. I left my daughter in a hotel room at my brother's wedding because I needed to go out partying some more. I woke up in someone else's room. Any number of horrific things could've happened to her, but by the grace of God, she and I are alright.
Toward the end, I had this constant feeling that I was one night away from something truly horrific and I never knew what was going to happen once I took that first drink.
1. I got a DUI and smashed the hell out of my car. This was not the scary part. The scary part was that it gave me zero pause; I was drunk again that night.
2. I left my daughter in a hotel room at my brother's wedding because I needed to go out partying some more. I woke up in someone else's room. Any number of horrific things could've happened to her, but by the grace of God, she and I are alright.
Toward the end, I had this constant feeling that I was one night away from something truly horrific and I never knew what was going to happen once I took that first drink.
voices ca**y
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: St. Paul Minnesota
Posts: 4,359
The realization that I no longer had any desire to try and control my drinking. When my brain got ahold of that information it cued my subconscious to do an intervention on me. Am I really going to quit my job and my life because it gets in the way of drinking? Well not if you put it that way.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 223
hangovers, lack of energy, wasting the morning in bed recovering, brain fog, not doing much else with spare time in the evening, contributes to my low grade depression, makes me not exercise, adds weight, robs me of health, cost
Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: PA
Posts: 695
My reasons for quitting were many but the main one was that I was so tired of waking up after a night of drinking and feeling like crap. Tired of spending the day trying to figure out what I did, what I said, and who I hurt. I just didn't want to live like that any more.
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