I drank till I had to stop, then stopped till I had to drink. I was always very ill after a bender. I used to envy those alcoholics who could stay topped up without losing control like I did.
Taking it past initial withdrawals, there does seem to be a period of grace, or window of opportunity for newly sober alcoholics to begin making the changes necessary for permanent recovery. That seems to be different for everyone. For me I had about 20 days to get busy before the obsession would return. Others get just a few days and some get years.
The one thing that is the same is that no one knows how long they have. Best not to waste time though.