Another way to give up is to have a serious illness: I contracted Lumbar Pneumonia in July last year (CRP was 300 to give you an idea of the severity) but recovered after 6 weeks of excellent care by the NHS. A side effect of this event is that I've gone off alcohol - I used to have a drink every other day as I way to chill out after a hard day's work; now I only drink socially and very rarely - I don't feel "I need it" anymore. On the other hand perhaps it was the number of alcoholics I saw in hospital that put me off...who knows?