“Even if you give people better habits, it doesn’t repair why they started drinking in the first place. Eventually they’ll have a bad day, and no new routine is going to make everything seem okay. What can make a difference is believing that they can cope with that stress without alcohol.”

I suspect that this is because of intertemporal cooperation effects. If I think I'm going to give in and drink in five minutes, I might as well go ahead and give in and drink now.