I can tell you what recently happened to me. I'd never had a problem moderating drinking before, but over the last three years it slowly got worse. And honestly it wasn't even that bad till the pandemic. For 2 and a half of those years I'd drink 2-6 beers a day after work not that big of a deal. But once everything shut down and I got laid off it spiraled out of control and I was drinking anywhere from 15-20 beers a day. Sometimes I wasnt even counting by day just by being awake or not. Like wake up do some chores drink a 12 pack fall asleep wake up later that day and do it again. The worst time I drank 22 beers in a row without even realizing it.

Then about a month and a half ago I woke up one day and my liver was inflamed. My whole belly felt swollen and though it didn't really hurt it was extremely uncomfortable every second of every day. I couldnt eat. I couldn't sleep. I had every symptom of liver failure except jaundice. So I obviously had to quit immediately but quitting cold turkey is bad too so I tried to drink a couple beers for the first few days to at least have a little in my system for my brain. And i was terrified to go to the hospital cause I'd just lost my job and insurance so it would have literally bankrupted me if i had to be admitted. The first week was hell. I only got about 5 hours of sleep from that Saturday to the next Thursday. Id fall asleep but 30 minutes later wake back up because of how uncomfortable it was. Eventually i found sleeping in a hammock helped a lot and was able to sleep longer. After a week it hadn't gone away so I finally went to urgent care and my liver did have elevated enzymes (liver damage). They told me to go home and come back if it gets worse. A few days later it finally started getting better and I could eat and sleep normally.

Its fine now and helped me quit drinking. But it was terrifying.