Originally Posted by
vendetta 
My brain works really fast. So fast I see a problem I see a solution and I move on before I actually act on it. I can think about a problem, come home drink to keep focus learn the solution and implement it the next day but I have a hard time focusing on my addiction. I know it, I understand it to an extent but I'm so focused on doing well at work that I use the alcohol to slow down and improve it. Of course sometimes the alcohal slows me down enough to also focus on my addiction. But by then I can't focus on it with a clear mind.
I relate to this, vendetta. I have been sober ~15 months now, but I definitely needed (still need) to learn new ways of "dealing with my brain". I'm not the only one who struggles with keeping up with my mental activity, and this has been the case in my whole life really. I also have a strong tendency for obsessiveness, and it can be pretty much anything I'm interested in...work included. I do believe that in part, I developed maladaptive behaviors (drinking was only one in the history) to distract myself... but it only "worked" in the beginning with alcohol. Alcoholism just made all that craziness worse.
I think that we need to learn how to relax in healthy ways. It has not been easy for me at all after getting sober, but it can be done. Yes many of us tend to substitute substance abuse with other extreme behaviors. I would say if you really need to do this, perhaps find something that won't do damage, like exercise? It's also good to relax the brain. I'm definitely someone who needs intensity in my life, especially stuff that can feed me mentally (intellectually and emotionally), otherwise I go crazy and start to do things that are not necessarily good for me, so I understand. I also get how the everyday routine becomes boring, and then we are looking for something to alter our reality... but again, there are ways to do this that will not destroy us.