Originally Posted by
Ruby2 
All we really need is food, shelter and water...
If you have food, shelter and water you feel a sense of pleasure. If you don't have food, shelter and water you feel anxiety and a compulsion to find those things. (Add breathing, sleep, and sex to that list.)
When you become addicted to a substance such as alcohol the EXACT SAME part of your brain responds to alcohol the same way it responds to food, water, shelter, sex, sleeping, and breathing - pleasure if you have it, anxiety and compulsion to acquire if you don't. Alcohol seeking becomes instinctive, and we feel like we have 2 minds; 1 that can't stop thinking about alcohol and 1 that knows alcohol is ruining us.
You can't 'turn off' that desire for alcohol, any more than you can 'turn off' a desire to breathe, eat, or sleep. BUT YOU CAN OVERRIDE IT.
Override it for long enough, and it will fade.