SomeSortOfHuman

Hi,

I had my last drink 8 weeks ago today.

There are many reasons why I needed to stop drinking, but one of them was that alcohol was occupying too much of my thinking space / mental energy. I would be out for dinner, but instead of fully listening to the conversation, I would be watching how much wine was left in the bottle and antsy about whether or not everyone at the table would want to order another / how I could make this happen without drawing attention to myself... I would be at the theatre, and my thoughts would drift to the drink I would have during the interval... You get the idea! I imagine it's familiar to lots of people here.

I'm glad to have stopped drinking. But I still feel like alcohol takes centre stage in my life. I'm now spending lots of time and energy avoiding alcohol, fighting my AV, reading about recovery etc. It's all good stuff, but I'm frustrated that alcohol is still such a big part of my day to day thoughts.

Those of you who have been sober for a while... I was just wondering how long it took for alcohol to take a back seat and become an occasional thought rather than a frequent preoccupation? Or is this something that never happens for some people? Is it possible that I might always be actively and consciously fighting this? Is it unreasonable to expect that eventually I might miss alcohol no more than I might miss something like chocolate if I stopped eating that?

I'm fed up. I've quit alcohol and I just want it to go away!!

Any experiences / advice would be much appreciated.