Remembering Why I Quit Drinking...After 8 Years Sober

Finding motivation by reflecting on my past.

Photo by Alfonso Scarpa on Unsplash

I’ve been sober for over eight years—nearly eight and a half—and quitting alcohol has changed my life more than any other decision I’ve ever made.

Since I quit drinking, I’ve gotten in shape, become happier, made more friends, found new hobbies, and changed careers—all as a nearly direct result of my sobriety.

Most importantly, by quitting drinking, I saved myself from a very likely early death. Before getting sober, I had spent over a decade getting drunk night after night. Some days, I went through entire cases of beer. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I drank enough that I could have died from it. I consider myself lucky to have lived long enough to get sober.

However, with all of that said, my original motivations for getting sober were far more limited. When I was still a drinker, it was hard to see just how badly my alcoholism was harming my life, because it was the only lifestyle I had known throughout my adulthood. I had nothing to compare it to, and many of the terrible experiences caused by my drinking just felt normal to me.

So why did I decide to stop drinking in the first place? What were the factors that truly pushed me to get sober?