Glad this got bumped.
Lots of good points above- perhaps most salient is that everyone has different experiences.
Dee posted that digital dharma article that struck me like lightening when I read it- it described the up and down path I took for 2 yrs. I'm a life or death case of quitting. To the behavioral things- I worked a very strong AA program from the beginning so for me that definitely wasn't the overall root of the experience.
Louise- points in time marked similar experiences for me like you share. I recall 10 mo being rough and 13 great....some kind of feeling of mixed something on the 2 yr....and diff up and down in between. As I became more like a regular person I grew more accepting of life's ups and downs that weren't weird.
Keep sober and thanks for sharing.