What a great thread. Lots of good reading.
I'd like to add a few things:
After I'd been sober a few years I started to listen carefully to what people at meetings shared, looking for what they had in common. Every one of them said that the first thing they did was they stopped going to meetings. I look at meeting attendance as insurance against a slip, among other things.
I do have an allergy. I have an abnormal reaction to a substance: alcohol. When I ingest even a little bit, I react differently than people who don't have the allergy. This allergy of the body is accompanied by an obsession of the mind. Alcoholism is the only disease that repeatedly tells you you don't have it. My mind keeps telling me it's been a long time, you're not really an alcoholic, you can have just one, you deserve it, no one has to know, and on and on!
My sobriety date is November 27, 1988, and I know full well it's one day at a time and it always will be.
Bring it on, friend. No matter what your past looks like, your future is spotless.