AshleyB

What made you finally decide to become sober?

Horn95

Wasn’t any one thing. It was a culmination and combination of several things.

Nonsensical

The side effects became more than I was willing to tolerate to chase a promise I no longer believed.

Freedom791

Loads of things really. But the biggest one for me was finally realising that the addiction would ultimately kill me either by health complications or some accident, which would in turn mean I would be abandoning my only child significantly earlier than I should be. As her only parent, that realisation was powerful. Proper brought me to my knees with guilt and shame. I quit that day.

Josie321

The awful hangovers that were becoming more awful all the time. The endless wasted days spent recovering from hangovers...so yeah, hangovers!

Horn95

Yeah, withdrawal was the thing that kept me drinking, and was the motivation FINALLY stop relapsing.

ScottFromWI

It was basically destroying every facet of my life - health, family, job, you name it.

soberista

Hangovers, wasted days, wasted life, guilt, anxiety, liver disease, menstruation problems, lack of energy, progressively drinking more, crazy drunken insulting conversations with family members and friends that i didnt remember in the morning, prospect of liver failure, loss of home, loss of health, loss of everyone around me, £1000's that could be spent on anything but alcohol....the list would have continued to go on.

DontRemember

I hated the 'person' I had became and was just miserable. I'm much happier these days without booze holding me back from doing anything I want to do. I feel free.

Hats

Pain.... Emotional, mental pain. I couldn't take it anymore. It was either get help or put a bullet in my brain. It was a matter of life and death for me.

least

I was just sick to death of waking up feeling horrible and hating myself and wishing I were dead.

Anna

My health was an issue and I was about to lose my family.

tomsteve

the pain of getting drunk had exceeded the pain of reality

DangerZone

Long story short - I came to the conclusion I don't like how I act when I drink. It turns me into a person I do not want to be and a person I hate.

FreeOwl

the aggregate effect of 25 years of alcohol and drug use - and all of its consequences - finally brought me to the point that I truly desired a better life.

And I got it.

So much better.

I hope it doesn't take you that long to make the choice.

Sobriety is a choice.

You don't have to "hit bottom" if you don't want to.

Finalround

Nonsensical and least sum it up best for me.

scottynz

Deciding to stop sticking my head in the sand about the pain in my right side. The fact my drinking was incrementally increasing in terms of amount and starting earlier. The secrecy of it all, hiding when I was doing it, not answering the phone when I knew my voice would sound slurred. The fact nobody knew so I felt it was hard to tell anyone. The endless mornings waking up feeling awful and ashamed. The feeling of helplessness to the grip of addiction.

It all added up, but no one thing was the catalyst. I lurked on these boards for months and flirted with ideas of moderation. In the end bit the bullett and saw my Dr, got some scarey (though unsurprising) test results and faced the fact I was choosing a really slow way to commit suicide and I had other options.

Finalround

Just dawned on me. A more rational question would be, "if alcohol makes you feel so ******, why do you continue to drink?"

2ndhandrose

I didn't want to die as a drunk. Ironically, I was living as a dead woman.

I am happy to report that I am very much alive and living now

gettingsmarter

It no longer made me feel good anymore. I was miserable cause I wanted to be drunk when I couldn't and even more miserable when I was drunk. The insanity had to stop.