AmbyMarie,
when my guilt, remorse, regret, shame over stuff in my drunk past kept sitting there dragging me down, i finally "agreed" i needed to deal with it. meaning: i needed to stop trying to forget it, stop trying to forgive myself, stop ignoring it: i needed to approach those i had harmed and try to set thins right.
i hose the suggested program of AA for that, and that worked well for/with me.
there are other ways to make amends, of course, but making amends is what moved me away from being tied to the past that way.