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Beside the sentence you quoted, lemme do what might be a first for me here on SR, and answer you by quoting myself:
'The 'power' of AV thoughts reduce to a laughable irrelevancy over time as The New Normal of dealing with Life while sober becomes entrenched.' <- For me, that's the same as my AV going away. I laugh, and ignore it.
Sohard, as all us Addicts have to do, you're having to retrain Behavioral 'essentials' - as they seem right now - and learn new essentials. Virtually all of us here have had to do that. Yah, I've done more 'fun' things in my Life than that, but it's simply repeatable motions you have to get through until it's about like riding a Bike. Doing Sober Things instead of Drinking Things to show your Beast how it's gonna work from this sober point on.
6 Months in was much easier than at ~3 Months in, as many of us can attest. That increased ease keeps on a comin' as Sober Living becomes natural.
May I suggest lots of reading. Both in how senior Members here now look back on AV antics for the BS they are, and to gain strategy tips. Also, over in 'Newcomers' to absorb how common these early challenges are.
I'm 'All In'. *I* have no use for Moderation, and all the verbose over-thinking that goes with it. I've rebuilt my Life from the Ground up to not need to get high on anything. At that point, getting high seems like a stupid distraction that I have absolutely *no* interest in. I don't want to keep tossing scraps out to energize my Beast, and keep it half-alive via random 'light' Drinking. To me, that's like pulling off a Scab repeatedly. The Injury will never fully heal if I keep doing that.
I call my present state 'Effortless Sobriety'. Cuz it is. I overcame Sobriety challenges with the same intensity of an Olympic Athlete training. It was either that, or my 1.75 Liter 'Handle' of Vodka every 2 Days in 24/7 Drinking was going to kill me. There is a clarity and intensity that emerges when you face certain death.
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