I spent some time re-reading just this thread. Let me share my experience. Until drinking became "fatal", and not just "inconvenient", or "caused problems", or made me feel badly physically the next day, or I woke up wondering how I could have possibly acted that way, and the real kicker, how I hated the person I had become, until I realized that my very next drink would kill me, I never "committed" to sobriety, or in the beginning , abstinence. Ask yourself this question, "Do I truly never want to take a drink again?" The answer will be no, as long as there is a thought in your mind that it is just inconvenient, and "I can handle it", or it will be better the next time. And, knowing whole volumes "about" alcoholism won't get you sober. As they said in the first edition all it takes is an honest desire to stop drinking. Stop, not moderate. The program will not work for those who want to alter their drinking frequency or behavior while drinking. Most of us who are successful in recovery admit we did not like who we became when drinking. I have always shared, if all I dealt with because of my drinking were the physical feelings, the lying I had to do to cover up my drinking, the lying I had to do to convince myself that the next time I would handle it better, all those "inconveniences", if that is all, I would be drunk today. It wasn't until I wanted to not drink more than I wanted to drink that it worked for me, and for me it had to be that the next drink would kill me. Hope that helps. I hope you see our bottom, rather than hit it. God bless. PS, golf sober is so much better than golf drinking!