I was like Astro, T. I drank or did whatever because I was addicted.
I used drinking as a compliment for everything, so there was always a 'reason' -
Sometimes the reason was 'no reason/why not?'.
As for pink clouds, I'm not sure I had one - I felt good in the early days, but I never felt this was my new default mode of existence - I'd 'quit' many times and knew what to expect - I accepted from the outset I'd have to work at this.
D