Years after acknowledging a past battle with alcohol abuse, President Bush this week provided details about his personal recovery, ABC News reported Dec. 11.

"I doubt I'd be standing here if I hadn't quit drinking whiskey, and beer and wine and all that," Bush said in an interview.

Bush, 61, quit drinking cold-turkey after getting drunk during a 40th birthday celebration. "I had too much to drink one night, and the next day I didn't have any," Bush said. "The next day I decided to quit and I haven't had a drink since 1986."

"I'm a better man for it," Bush added. "I wasn't a knee-walking drunk .. It's a difficult thing to do, which is to kick an addiction."

Bush delivered a similar message while meeting with a group of teenagers struggling with addiction. "Your president made the same kind of choice," he told one young female in recovery. "I had to quit drinking. Addiction competes for your affection and you fall in love with alcohol."

"I was trying to encourage her to stay strong," Bush said later. "I wanted her, this young girl who's struggling with drug addiction, to know that others who might be famous have the same issue, that she's not alone."