The personality change that's produced by the steps allow us to meet life differently in the difficult situations we'll surely encounter as the years pass without drinking again.
Our guilts have been resolved in the process and we've made peace with our past.
Giving instead of getting has replaced self-centeredness.
We get a neutral attitude toward alcohol. Worrying about drinking, arguing, fighting, talking ourselves down from the edge are not part of AA members lives. I can tell you that the thought of deciding not to drink is foreign to me, something I have to work a bit to imagine.
For those AA members who take the steps and continue to maintain their spiritually-based lives the problem is removed and no longer exists. The members in my group who had 9 months when I came in are either still sober or have died sober during the last 30 years. None have drank. None had to fight or argue with themselves or ignore voices in their heads.
Results from doing replace wished-for results from not doing.