It seems that alcoholism knows every trick in the book and it outsmarts the best and worst of us. The only way to beat it is twofold - (1) eliminate it entirely, and (2) find true recovery. The second takes the most effort but it is where you will find the happiness you speak of. There are many great threads here on Recovery - what it means and what it entails. I will try to find them and link them for you, bobdrop.
This is just a general heading. I will look for actual threads.
https://www.soberrecovery.com/forums/what-recovery/