I remember the first time after I said I was sober a guy cocked his eyes all funny at me so one was bigger then the other and he leaned toward me and said with piercing eye's "Yeah but are you sober?"
I thought I was sober but I was pretty sure the answer to his question was no. Very confusing.
The point of the whole exercise as near as I can figure is you can either stop drinking and be focused on alcohol and not drinking (which is miserable) or you can stop drinking and do all the stuff you described. Get real, seek truth, find growth and get to why you would be willing to abuse yourself into a drunken stupor.
Just make sure if you ever ask that question you get the look down, it really through the newbies for a loop.