At that point (been there), a guy is lookin' at a bottom-out before any healing might start.
Mine was a run-in with the law and the wife and kids leaving for a summer.
The law thing was an expensive victory, but I was a minority, most have serious convictions of some sort who get to the point of dependence I was at. It still lurks.
The family leaving might be enough, never know, or it might add fuel.
Good buddy just went through a divorce, including two kids, and still drinks keg-loads--wasn't enough to make him want to stop.
Figure he's hard-core, only getting arrested and convicted of something alcohol-related or serious bodily harm inflicted on an innocent probably gonna make him want to change, even then, who knows?
Gets his kids every other week.
We're all under the same roof, but the deal is I saved my situation by making the only major change to lifestyle in 20 years in the nick of time. My efforts were judged hard and deemed worthy. It sucked. Don't want to go there again.
Biggest eye-opener I ever took on, but a busted-down ego and the absence of young ones steered me up the hard path. And it ain't easy for that first period of sobriety, a month, a year, whatever. Ain't no happy hour can replace bouncin' a little one on my lap anymore, though.
A guy finds out how few times are appropriate for drinkin' if he wants his family together, especially if he's been a binger for a long time and if the spankin' he gets does sink in.
Love my beer, still, love my family more. Didn't used to be that way, glad I still had some sense left to try make the change when I "got my sign". I wouldn't have been able to do it on my own, that's a certainty.
