Originally Posted by
mandosca 
May I ask how long it took you to get to that point? I know it will be different for everyone but I've been "mostly" sober for the last three or four months and have not made that switch. I still feel so deprived. I have never experienced physical withdrawals and mostly drink to celebrate or because of happy things rather then depression or anxiety and I hope for the day that I will think of it as a "gift" rather then a negative thing.. :-)
I can't remember for sure, but somewhere in the 6-7 month timeframe. I had a lot of legal crap to deal with, and once a lot of that was over, the cloud sort of lifted for me. Plus I was done with outpatient treatment then, and working the steps in AA pretty hard at that point. I just remember sitting on my deck, and thinking that in the past I would have had a glass of wine or a beer with me, and instead of missing that, a feeling of such peace washed over me, because I realized that not only had I not thought about missing the wine, I was really HAPPY to not be drinking. I knew that I had turned a corner of some sort. Of course, your mileage may vary. But I do hope you get to that point - it's a good place to be.