Alcoholism is weird because when you're having fun and hanging out drinking with friends or family, no one bats an eye. When you have a glass of wine with dinner, it's totally fine. When you do shots at a party and can hold your liquor better than all the guys, it's cool.
But when you skip out of doing things you used to love, or spending time with important people in your life, just to prioritize getting home and drinking yourself unconscious...
And so you try to quit, you relapse, you try to quit, you relapse, you try to quit, and you relapse, and this goes on for years and years.
You get sober for the longest you ever have. You get past withdrawals, past the irritation, past the stomach problems and the headaches. You start feeling good, brighter, cleaner, more energy. Days turn to weeks, into months, and you feel so proud of yourself.
You have to tell people, it comes up. You're offered a glass of red with dinner, your friends want to pregame, you try to be casual, but the implications of deliberate sobriety are clear.
Suddenly your friends get weird about inviting you to things where people will be drinking, and you know it's meant in kindness but it just feels like they don't trust you to handle yourself.
Your family get annoyed that you don't drink socially because clearly its a judgment of their drinking habits and it's just selfish of you. Wine with dinner isn't really even drinking so they don't know why you can't make an exception.
Events that further your ambitions often happen when people are sitting around casually drinking, and not drinking just makes you seem a little less trustworthy, more judgemental, less of a team player.
You feel as though it would be so much easier if you just started socially drinking again. It just makes things so much more convenient. Your friends and family feel like you've gotten over your qualms and have reentered normal adult society. It's so much nicer when you aren't an alcoholic, you just thought you were. There was never a need to be so dramatic about it, it's really not a big deal.
And then something stressful happens at work, or you have a fight with a loved one, or you make a mistake that makes you feel like you just need a little extra comfort, and you could be doing something so much worse, and you've been so good it clearly isn't a problem anymore, and you've grown so much since you binge drank last, you've got a real handle on it now.