I didn't - but I was almost always a responsible user. I was a functional alcoholic for a long time - I even quit drinking because of it. I was good to go until I hit retirement. When I sold my company, it was like my brain knew it no longer had to function. I ended up an alcoholic and an opiate addict. I used to buy Fentanyl and shoot it. I quit the opiates and then was in a spectacular automobile wreck. So, now I take Suboxone to stop me from going out and buying opiates. It does nothing for my new-life-of-pain, but it does stop me from craving and does stop me from using. The ONLY reason I kept my practice schedule up during the worst of that was because it was already a habit. If I don't play, I really feed weird after a few days of it. It's something so ingrained that my body just wants to do it. So, I still usually practiced while completely fucked up. Sure, sometimes I'd nod out while practicing, but I'd still get my two hours in. Drug and alcohol addiction are serious job hazards for working musicians. We should probably collectively argue for benefits to cover treatment! (I'm only partially kidding. I do belong to the union, however.) Seriously, musicians end up drug and alcohol addicts and more than 2/3rds of all professional musicians (across all instruments) have an RSI to deal with from the repeated stresses we put on our bodies. The only time I don't get to practice is when my wrists flair up for a week or so. I still tend to wrap them and practice, but it hurts. When my wrists flair up a lot, just turning a door knob is painful - like sharp pains. So, you gotta look out for that shit. You've gotta take good care of yourself, and that means not always getting trashed and fucked up. Sadly, many of us don't find out until it's too late. One thing I've done right was I've been pretty good to my hearing. I'm much less deaf than many musicians my age, as I've tended to wear hearing protection when the volumes are loud. So, protect your hearing as well... It's not easy to be a musician.