Cleo, it sounds like you are wondering if becoming sober is as easy as your experience indicates. If you say it was easy, it was easy. We each get to pick our degree of difficulty in getting sober. We react in ways we feel are dictated by our genes, our upbringing, our environment, or our past, but in the end it is all us. If we can think ourselves into new ways of acting, we can think ourselves into new ways of thinking as well.
If AV is the sound of your barking beast, then sometimes that dog is silent. Your mindfulness and presence in the moment will tell you if this is true. Acceptance and awareness is an enlightened way to live, and it sounds as though you are living large. Well done.