To be honest, I no longer rely on the memory of "how bad it was" to keep me sober. I tried that before, the "one day at a time" and rehashing how bad things were so that I wouldn't forget, and inevitably, I drank again. The first time I quit, I started feeling a whole lot better after about a month, and like Jenny said, it kind of felt like I had returned to how I was before I started drinking. I felt like I was running on six cylinders instead of two, like I had been for years.
Then one day I "forgot" why I had quit, and thought "well, since I feel so much better, why not have a few?" Somehow that "cost benefit analysis" of drinking vs not drinking didn't do the trick, and I was on the way to the liquor store. That brought on a headlong descent into the abyss, with much suffering. I finally had to make a decision to never drink again, and to never change my mind, which I solidified by realizing that in order for me to do anything truly wrong, or bad, or heinous, I would have to be drunk. As such, for me, drinking is the most immoral act of all, and I abstain as a matter of principle.
When I finally got around to quitting again, though, I did not bounce back as fast as I did the first time, and I am not entirely sure I ever will return to how I was before. I do think about drinking every so often, but I no longer have relapse anxiety. I don't have to worry about remembering all the bad stuff, which if I were to think about all the time would make me horrifically depressed. In fact, I am not even inclined to really "share" my story anymore, since it would serve little purpose beyond making me feel bad.
I don't know what the future will bring, but I do know that I will not drink again.