I'm a newcomer myself, but you are always welcome here as far as I'm concerned. We're all in the same boat
The hopeless feeling will start to subside when you find strength in a Higher Power and get a few days of sobriety under your belt. You cannot deal with this alone. I don't care who your Higher Power is - God, the sun and moon, an AA group - but you can not handle all you are going through on your own. So you take what you can and give the rest to God (or, i.e., the Higher Power.)
You will stop when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
You may hit a rock bottom. I hit lots of them. You would think that after drinking myself into a blackout, trying to drive home (unsuccessfully), having to park my car in the woods so no one would know I was trying to drive it, walking 10 miles on a rural highway at 2 a.m. with no shoulders but plenty of tractor trailers would have taught me a lesson. During this walk I fell numerous times, ripped my favorite pair of jeans, bled from my legs and my face. I was NOT a pretty sight the next morning. An officer finally picked me up and drove me home. Did I stop drinking? Nope.
When you are ready to stop, you will just know. Don't force it if you are not ready; I am living proof that that does not work.