9/28/04 for me. I had previously decided I was "cured" after 10 years clean.
Otherwise I would have saved me and everyone in my circle including my wife and kids, friends, co-workers,...a whole bunch of hell and screwups.. It's actually pretty amazing I lived through all that since I was plumb off the chain. It sure was fun for while though.

Some of us just take longer before it finely soaks in. I thank God for that every day. And my very wise Ft. Worth probation officer RIP. He was one very wise man and I give him full credit for telling me what my future was likely to hold in a way I understood. But God was the actual real solution and deserves full credit for turning my life around. It's nothing short of a miriacle. A lot of people can get falling down drunk and still not have the problem. I wish I was like that, but I'm just not.