In my experience, the act of abstaining from drinking was never responsible for "making me happy". But it did provide the clarity and insight needed for me to come to terms with all of the shite that I'd been clinging to over the years that was dragging me down like a 2-ton millstone.
I would caution you against believing that sobriety is the end game here. It wasn't until I started looking at sobriety as the beginning of my journey that I truly believed that I'd begun to heal emotionally.