Hi tangledknot.
Wow did your story hit home to me. I am going to assume you are female? I am the exact same as you. 26 year old female, and by the outside I could never classify as an alcoholic. All the things you say, I thought too. Not to toot my own horn, but I have a very good job, a wealthy family, I am beautiful by the definition of "society", a petite blonde with blue eyes and it also took me a long time to realize I drank exactly like you do.
I always blacked out when I drank, and also went on 3 day binges. Morning after I drank after a night out etc., Alcoholism does not discriminate.
I realized the same thing you said, get a good life with goals, or continue down this path, and I saw what that path was in a moment of clarity, and it was damn scary. I saw myself as being disgusting to other people, stumbling around, losing my looks and dying, or killing someone I loved in a car crash, because I do STUPID **** when I am drunk.
People our age seem to think we are still a bit invincible, we aren't. I also thought the same thing, I am so young... all my friends drink, this sucks.
But a lot of people on here changed my thinking around that. They all said they WISHED they got sober at 26,27 instead of trying to control it for another 10-15 years, and ended up with ALOT more **** their drinking caused them.
Imagine the things that you could do in 10 more years... scary hey?
I don't really care what any of my friends think, and in fact I am proud to be sober... once you get out of the fog a bit, and give yourself a chance to love sobriety, and feel good waking up every morning, and regain your confidence and feel proud of yourself... you wont want to go back to drinking. You must give it a chance. Literally one day at a time, don't stress about the future, or Halloween and how youre not going to drink (that's what I used to do about every future event).
Be an inspiration for people our age, and show them that the sober life is the good life, a couple years down the road, people will be asking you for help!
If you want, PM me, I would love to chat more!