Have you googled this decades neuroscience regarding addictions? That’s how I stopped drinking, and ironically, it was using a tool that was developed on the back of 1990s understanding of the then, neuroscience, on the back of eons of self-recovered, without the benefit of neuroscience.
At the risk of upsetting folks who believe in the disease model (and believe me, I know it works for some on SR, when they rely on their Higher Power, absolutely) but it was ONLY when I took responsibility for whether, or not, I acted on my thoughts, that I stopped my previous 20 plus year addiction, the last five of which were all day every day.....equivalent of a litre of vodka a day.
I stopped drinking by learning and fully subsuming that my thoughts were just that. Random thoughts, habituated, programmed as a child, programmed by society. The thoughts that say that a drink will remove uneasy, uncomfortable feelings, depression, PTSD, stress; or conversely, prolong or damp down happy feelings!
I learnt that my brain became habituated and likened alcohol as an elixir to cure any feeling, good, bad, indifferent or bored. I also learnt that, like riding a bike, or riding a horse, or flying a sail plane, my drinking habit had been encoded, or programmed into my sub-conscious brain.
Remember when you learnt to ride a bike, or drive a car, how difficult it was - then eureka, the skills required were transferred from your pre-frontal cortex to your sub-conscious and it became effortless. This is neuroplasticity at work and I learnt that provided I abstained, neuro plasticity also worked in reverse, so abstinence became the new norm, given time.
But I also learnt that the neuronal loops associated with the alcohol fix, can fire up to their old level, the instant I take a drink. You can’t unlearn riding a bike, same is true with the alcohol fix for feelings. Therefore I decided to never drink again. No matter what the pain, the agony, the fear, the happiness, I will never imbibe to lessen, or heighten any random thought or feeling I have (I call it my AV, others call it their disease talking).
So, that was the drink addiction sorted. Then I used bloody mindedness to reinforce that I was in control of my brain.
And I did. And I threw myself in at the deep end. Booked a caving experience that terrified me a few weeks after my stop date. Darkness, confined spaces, absailing, via faretta: CHECK! Concerts, socialising (after becoming a home alone drunk) CHECK!
Daredevil, you’d be surprised how capable you are at turning your drinking career around, if you really, 100% and without reservation, committed to anything: AA, SMART, AVRT, Freedom Model, SR.......all it takes is BELIEF in YOURSELF! Belief that you are not your thoughts, the AV/disease with its siren call for drink. You are more than that. You are not akin to Pavlov’s dogs.