I know that I will always be an alcoholic, therefore I have accepted that I will need to respect and accept my addiction for the rest of my life. The cravings and the obsession about drinking do definitely fade, and for the most part I go through the majority of my days without alcohol even entering my conscious thoughts. But I do need to remind myself ( daily ). We read about people here who drink after years, even decades, of sobriety. In almost every case, the reason they drank upon re-examination was that they strayed away from whatever it was that kept them sober.