Hi!
While there are so many irritating and frustrating issues when quitting drinking, to me this has to be one of the most perplexing. I get the cravings, I get the depression, etc, but why the French does my computing skills seem to go in the hopper for so long too? Wasn't alcohol supposed to be holding my reasoning skills back?
So I get having the brain fog for a couple of days or maybe even weeks... but I seems like it just goes on and on. I don't (reasonably) miss alcohol at all. Perhaps a smidgen romantically, but this was necessary.
Having said that, with some confidence I could guarantee that with about 2-3 drinks my mind would be sharp as a tack. My self control would begin to plummet, my rational decision making would plummet, my bad uninhibited behaviors would quickly return, but I could find every word in my head, most stored memories, names, dates, and places.
For the life of me, I can't understand this. If our brain is genuinely deficient in something, it wouldn't magically become sufficient from the alcohol. So does something not get made in withdrawal, that gets re-released when drinking. Are there neurotransmitters that get released along with the endorphins and serotonin and whatever else. I'm not a biochemist or neurologist so I have no idea what these are, but it seems to me alcohol either is a key that unlocks something (after it destroyed the old lock mechanism) or maybe it destroyed the level detector or something.
Anyway, I'm with the OP and many others, in terms of frustration with this aspect.
Stupid alcohol...
EH