The thing about compulsive drinking is that it tends to progress. The problem is not the consequences but the fact that one is trapped inside a progression. Progressions progress, and the alcoholic one is fatal. It's incurable, to boot, but it can be stopped in its tracks. It's also tricky: opportunity is not a lengthy visitor. Moreover, just like the circus, when it leaves town, you never know when it's going to be back. I was urged to treat my alcoholism urgently, which I did in 1993, by going to AA and doing what it suggested.