Welcome to SR, frostfire.
Congratulations on making the decision to quit alcohol altogether. That's a hard one to make, I know.. Carl beat me to it when they offered the third alternative to your dissatisfying reality, only I would've said 'learn to sit with it, through it.' Different from 'dealing with it' because it involves acceptance rather than tolerance. At least how that was for me.
I agree with the others that this addiction isn't strange; it's just addiction. It might be helpful to think of yourself as having a brain that is addicted to alcohol rather than as 'an alcoholic.' That's kind of how I see it - my brain goes haywire when I ingest alcohol. I could tell you all about why that happens, but that's almost irrelevant. What happens is that reason goes out the window and I start to/continue to drink regardless of the consequences. It's not fun at all - it feels more like a death wish, actually. Bummer, right? If I want to avoid that reaction in my brain, all I have to do is Not Drink. Simple, but often not easy to begin with.
For what it's worth, hangovers are withdrawal. They get worse, but no one can predict in what way that will play out for anyone, including themselves.
I'm glad you are here.
O