It took a lot of stupid to drink myself into that condition in the first place. First it's about survival. At age 20 I was able to go through a fifth of whiskey in a night. If I didn't stop I was dead. It's also about personal responsibility. I was not only hurting myself, I was also hurting my family and society in general. Addiction is something like an allergy. Not taking the first drink is a doable proposition. Not taking the second drink is impossible. Like a rash, I gotta scratch that itch. Once you scratch it the more it itches.
It's not about self control. What it does take is courage. Going into recovery a person has to throw out so many of "moral shortcuts" they relied on to facilitate their habit (and then permeated the rest of their life), the person coming out the other side is sometimes unrecognizable. You also leave friends and even family behind.
I had to face myself or face death. I chose the easier opponent.