Zebra1275

To save my life and relationships with others.

nez

Because I deserved a better life than the one I was living and I had hope that I could find it.

BackandScared

The alternative was something I was not prepared to face

travelbug

To save my life. I want to be around to meet my grandchildren someday

Walnut1

I have too much to lose.

FreddyGeorge

Hi,

I would say numerous but mainly not being able to trust myself, not reaching my potential, not being happy in my own skin. I know I’m in charge of the first drink but the drinks after I am a run away train and I don’t want the guilt and shame anymore.

BeABetterMan

Because of agony.

GreatInquiry7

Besides the fact that moderation when it comes to alcohol is not possible for me and causes issues, embarrassment, etc.

I quit because I didn't want to let the rest of my life dwindle away, and damn sure didn't want to be that person 5-10-20+ years from when I quit.

Drinking didn't align with my (addictive) personality or future goals.

Bob4x4

I've quit many times, for years at a time. Right now life has very little joy or hope and I need that to change. I'm tired of the rollercoaster of quitting, letting my guard down then finding myself back at bottom again, fatter, out of shape depressed, lonely, and older. Drinking was like a high school friend to celebrate being free of school or drinking to party and talk about big future plans. Magical thinking binge drinking. time to get real and find a way out and up.

davidjbass

I quit to feel better in both health and mental capacity. Health wise my BP was going up and the only option was to start taking BP meds. Not an option. My eyes were starting to go bad. Alcohol abuse does over long periods of time cause permanent vision loss. I notice my eyes over the past year getting worse. I am an avid golfer. Definitely not an option! Mental wise I was not going anywhere. On my work days I would hit the bar right after work and have 2 to 3 drinks. Then come home and be useless sit on my arse watch the stupid tube and go to bed. Repeat the next day. On the weekends start drinking around 2 pm. Again I would only have 2 or 3 but it would put me in the zombie zone and nothing was getting done around my house. I grew tired of it last Friday January 8, 2021. I went out after work with a golf friend with the intention of only having 1. Which turned into 3. Woke up the next morning and felt like ****! That's when I made the decision to quit for good. I am just not the kind of person that can have 1. And not the kind of person to drink one day and not the next. I came to terms with myself on this 1/9/21. I have been through HELL! the past 8 days. I am never going back.

ANM

Because I was literally killing myself. The last thing I wrote to myself, the last night I drank was:

"There are 2 ways ways out of this, sobriety or death".

I've been sober 2 weeks today and I'm not turning back.

WhiskeyBent

Three kids and a wife are good reasons to quit. So is drowning my insides till I bled.

No more. I quit.

whitejay

EXACTLY BOB4X4 - I want off the rollercoaster just like you. When I binge drink - boy can I think magic too. time for reality

Boggle10

I was fed up sneaking and that face that I so in the mirror was so hagered and wore down, I was fed up arguing with myself in my head and promising to stop, I was digging a bigger hole everyday and it just needed to stop

secretchord

Why? Because I couldn’t stop. I quit 7
months ago hopefully for the last time. I consider myself a high functioning binge drinker. I’ve been a year sober before so I knew what to expect.
This time it was easier because I took naltrexone to quit.

babycat

My health anxiety had gotten out of hand. I was so scared of getting cancer, cirrhosis, any of the maladies that can come from years of poisoning yourself. I know I am not alone in this but the dumbest way I dealt with all my mostly phantom symptoms was to drink more so I could forget about it and convince myself I was fine. Pretty ridiculously counterintuitive!!
I also am vain as hell and I somehow miraculously still look younger than my age but I was getting a bit stout. I was always so into fitness and when I was drunk all the time I just couldn't be bothered. That is obviously tied into health as well but lets face it, i just wanted to look good. Hey, whatever works tho right??
Another big one was making an ass of myself and being so over cringing at my posts on social media. Or wondering if my mom could tell I was buzzed when she would talk to me on the phone. The anxiety that come from these things was just getting to be too much for me.
I missed my creativity. I missed singing. Singing was once my whole life and my voice is a fraction of what it once was because I am so out of practice. I missed making art, painting and drawing.
Remembering the ends of movies and books.
haha this was going to be a short post. It got away from me!!
I love to see everyone's posts tho.This whole thread is amazing. You guys are amazing.

SweatyHands

I quit because I was dying—and not slowly or peacefully. I can’t drink like a normal person. When I start, I can’t stop, and to say that it caught up to me is a massive understatement. I got sober the first time at 35. I had been an around-the-clock drinker for a while, but the withdrawal was terrible, and the amount ai needed to drink just to not hallucinate was ridiculous. I detoxed at a hospital and had about 3 1/2 years sober before I moved across the country and decided that I could start drinking again like a normal person. After a few months, I was back where I started, and I had to leave graduate school because I was drunk 24 hours a day and physically falling apart. I had a final bender that almost killed me, and had to have my sister fly out to stay with me while I tapered (shockingly, successfully) at home. 3 1/2 years later, I graduated from graduate school and stopped taking care of my mental health (and I’m a Psychotherapist) and relapsed once more. I had friends staying with me to try to keep me alive, but after six days, I ended up in the hospital with a .556 BAC and no expectation that I was going to survive. I told myself that if I survived that day, I would do anything that I had to in order to stay alive to help others not go through what I put myself and my friends and family through. In that hospital bed, I realized that I like being alive. I’m not overly attached to this body, and I’m at peace with the fact that I can be taken off of this planet at any time, but I’m not going to make it happen any sooner than it has to.