Arctic!! Congratulations!
The advice I have I learned from watching others... I know a guy who was the most outrageous drunk. The kind where you just couldn't take him anywhere. Every single day he would start off in the early afternoon and by late evening be so wasted that he would get in fights, **** on the floor, etc etc... (no, this wasn't a friend of mine. Friend of friends, and honestly at the time I had no idea why anyone would put up with him).
Anyway he got sober probably about a year ago now? Out of nowhere, surprised everyone (or maybe those closer to him weren't surprised, but I certainly was). And I've got to say, I respect him now. And I don't really count, 'cause I'm a drunk too so of course I have sympathy. But what's been striking for me is that now everyone respects him. He went from being a human circus to being legit. Got married, runs a business, etc. And now it's like his drinking is just a post-script.
I think people have trouble understanding alcoholism when it's in action ("why don't you just stop at two?") but in retrospect it's easier for them to understand. With this guy, almost immediately it's gone from "Gee, Bob's drinking is disgraceful" to "Haha, remember how crazy Bob used to be!"
It'll be the same for you, I imagine. And hopefully for me. I just stop myself every time I go to open that door of digging through the past and looking for things to be embarrassed about. I'm pretty sure that once everyone gets used to me sober, the old me will just be a funny story as far as most people are concerned. I look forward to making new friends who will be
floored when someone who's known me for awhile tells them I used to be a big drinker!