What you say Soberlicious is incontrovertible. It really is that simple it seems to me. However the circumstances in which we drank, the reasons why we did - the 'benefit' many of us found in it, at least to begin with, all complicate the picture and make untangling it all quite important at least to some of us. I signed up for addiction counselling exactly because of thast and because if I understand the drivers in my drinking I may be better placed to fight them.
For example - I had a counselling session today, as it happens and we looked, as we had planned to, at my use of alcohol to manage anxiety, which I know was a big factor in its initial attraction to me. We went on to talk about alternative methods of dealing with anxiety, including relaxation techniques and modern forms of meditation. We will do more on that next time.
It is simplicity itself to not pick up a glass or wine/beer/scotch. It is perhaps rather more complicated to think about why we might wish to and how we might stop wishing to.
I am very conscious I don't have any right to offer much of an opinion, being so newly sober. Just my thinking at the moment.
Cheers..as they say,