Just prior to my quitting, I gained some new challenges at work. I had my doubts and fears about the new work. I found I was telling myself that I need the nightly drinking so I could handle the extra stress. That was just prior to my quitting. It took a few weeks but I found that I was better and handling the stress sober than I would've been otherwise.
Recently I just went thru an agonizingly stressful and worrisome period of combined home and work related problems. Sometime during the middle of it all, my wife talked to me about how I was doing and asked the stress makes me want to drink. My response was "People use stress as an excuse because they want to drink. Drinking does not help alleviate stress, drinking only stresses the body and mind. So then we end up with more stress not less stress.". Having heard my self say that strengthened my resolve to never drink again.