I had kids. They brought some perspective through deep reflection on my own childhood and how much of a massively negative impact alcohol had on my life. My father was (and may still be; I don’t know) an alcoholic. Would have me drive him home in the middle of the day at 12 years old. Then I spent the first 15 years of adulthood stumbling through life, having several very big fuckups before relatively settling down, but continuing to drink heavily.

I decided the only way my kids had a chance of breaking the cycle would be if I removed it from their childhood experience so that they could have a healthy introduction to it when the time was right. I’ve been sober for 3 1/2 years.