theory
'Recovery' and its associated narratives is an attempt mid life to form neural connections ordinarily formed in most normal drinkers. That's why there's such a heavy emphasis on moral restitution, creative visualization, logical systems. Essentially, we're trying to fill in the blanks on flawed neural chemistry by creating novel pathways of thought to compensate for the atrophied areas...I'm sure someone has had this thought before.
The upshot though is that the novelty of cessation of suffering from suffering is so intense that it isn't taken for granted.
A hypothesis: "working at it" from any novel angle does this.