When I first got sober, waking up every morning after a night of completely uninterrupted sleep with no hangover almost felt like a high to me after all the years of abusing my body with alcohol. It felt so good to not be nauseated, dehydrated, etc. upon awakening that it felt like an altered state.
I did relapse once after about six months without alcohol because I kept waiting "for the magic to happen." Everyone kept saying that it would happen and it did, but it didn't and that tripped me up. I had to work on myself and my issues that lead me to alcohol to begin with. Alcohol was the solution and not the problem. In my case, anxiety and my complete inability to deal with it properly was what sent me to the bottle. Over the years, I have equipped my personal tool box with the tools I need to face things head on such as anxiety and not use alcohol as an escape. My point is nothing other worldly is going to happen by just stopping drinking. You have to work on your issues and determine what was making you want to escape through the drink.