There really is some sort of higher level of fun without drinking. I think when you're a drinker, you're always trying to just get through the day until you can drink again but as a non-drinker, the fun is in the moment. You're not buried in heaps of anxiety, cravings, depression, fatigue and worry all the time, trying to figure out how you can get to that one moment when you have your booze all to yourself again and can relax. To me, abstinent life includes higher highs and lower lows and being a drunk is just living in a constant state of just getting by. As the Eagles put it best, "You're losing all your highs and lows, ain't it funny how the feeling goes away". That's what being a drunk was to me...just a constant level of existing rather than actually living life. It's like being a lamp that's plugged in but isn't turned on.