It took awhile for the obsession to leave me too. I found I was also obsessed with how I was NOT drinking for the first 6 months. I thought about it all the time. I spent a lot of time on here. I used a lot of distraction and picked up some hobbies that required me to concentrate and demanded my full attention. Exercise was really important to me, still is. That gave me those good endorphin's and made me feel strong and healthy. I also used thought stopping, I would firmly shut those thoughts down if I could. Those thoughts are only as powerful as you allow them to be. If you engage with them and allow those debates to swirl around in your mind then they will seem very real and powerful. But if you recognize them and then ignore them then they lose their steam and fade. I avoided situations and people that I felt would make my journey harder for me, and I still do. It was hard enough in the beginning without putting myself in situations that would get my AV all fired up. And like LBrain said, I never gave in, that's key. Defeat was not an option. My AV told me all the time that I wouldn't be able to do it, IT constantly tried to undermine my confidence. IT used time against me a lot, like Ok maybe you won't drink today but you will later at such and such event or occasion. IT used my past failures against me as examples of how weak I was and how impossible quitting would be for me. I had to learn to recognize those lies and to believe in myself despite all of that.