Not sure. All I know is I get through every day as it comes with the notion that I'm going to keep doing so for the rest of my life. It's actually easier to say no to drinking a thousand times than it is to say one meaningful and eternal no.
I figure I am already planning to live clean and sober from a lot of drugs I could theoretically relax with at the end of the day: opium, opiate painkillers, marijuana, barbituates, etc. So what's wrong with adding one more, alcohol, to the list?