It's encouraging MesaMan and Jeffrey that you both don't feel this 'pull' of alcohol anymore.
Originally Posted by
MesaMan 
It may be nothing but Mental Sleight-of-Hand on my part, but my embedded recollections of Drinking-related times are mostly negative because that's the note they ended on.
I think that's a great way of looking at it. Mental sleight-of-hands like this re-interpret our past experience.
I wonder if the 'sleight-of-mind' you describe is analogous to having what you thought was a great relationship with someone only to discover that had ulterior reasons - they were only after your money for example. I imagine that this would automatically re-interpret every nice time you had together without you having to do anything!
It's strictly analogous because with drink there was no conscious intent to deceive, at least in the begining anyway. Once AV appeared, you could maybe regard it as the deceitful partner who was happy to play you along with no thoughts for your own life just so that they could achieve their single-minded purpose.