Originally Posted by
LaFemme 
I have noticed a definite increase in my thinking in the past month or so...its nice, I used to pride myself on being pretty sharp and I know I lost a lot of that towards the end of my drinking, so it's very hopeful that I am catching glimmers of it again.
I also do a lot of brain teasers to help rebuild the damage I did from all the booze.
I still feel less-than-optimal, like something is not right, still waiting for my "up-tick".
The first time I quit, for 34 days, I definitely felt an improvement, but then I went back to drinking at even more obscene levels for almost a year and a half, and the improvement has not been as noticeable this time.
Perhaps I should hit Chessmaster on the computer... :-)
I did read somewhere that after sufficient time, the brain will re-build NEW pathways to perform the old tasks, and provided there was no prior permanent damage, and there are no more "relapses" it (functionally) eventually becomes similar to non-drinkers.
They did MRI scans and other things, though, and noticed that the same mental tasks in long-term-abstinent former alcoholics was being handled by a different part of the brain than in the non-drinkers!