why and how did you stop drinking?
ANSWER:
One time I was single and on a date. We went to some bar and I started drinking. And drinking more. And drinking more. I was very funny. I had the bartender laughing and refilling. I had everyone around me laughing. The girl I was with was laughing. “You’re so cute when you are drunk!”
About halfway through I remember staggering to the bathroom and the room was spinning. When I came out of the bathroom I vaguely remember the girl kissing someone else. I vaguely remember leaving the place and falling on the ground around 3rd avenue and 47th street at about two in the morning in the middle of the street. Cars were honking and skidding around me. It was raining. I don’t know why a car didn’t hit me. Someone, the girl maybe, pulled me off the street and onto the sidewalk. We were all laughing while cars skidded around, avoiding me lying in the middle of a busy Manhattan street. I vaguely remember getting to my hotel room. In the middle of the night I felt sick and I vaguely remember vomit coming out of my mouth and spraying all over the room and the bathroom.
In the morning, the room was still spinning. I saw the clock and I was two hours late for a meeting. I went into the living room and the girl I had went out with the night before was lying on the couch with her legs on the floor and her clothes half off. I left her there. I got to my meeting, which was in progress but I was too sick to stay. I said I had a stomach flu and everyone let me leave.
I was gaining weight. I couldn’t sleep. I was getting depressed. Alcohol causes all of these things. It also loosens inhibitions. When I was single I wanted my inhibitions loosened. I vaguely remember drinking so I could get enough nerve to kiss someone. Finally I met someone who didn’t drink. And she was healthy. So I married her. That’s how I stopped.