Getting to the place where we became alcoholic was a gradual process that took place, for some of us, over the first 20 years of our live. Then we stayed there for ten years, twenty years, thirty years.. And now we expect to put the drink down one day and be over it. Recovery is going to be life long. If it did happen in a few weeks, months or years, then we'd probably decide we were recovered, we were done, and then it would be down hill from there..