ScottFromWI

Yes, it's definitely not easy. Anxiety of all kinds is very common along with addiction, and many of us used alcohol as a failed attempt to "self medicate" our anxiety.

There's lots of good suggestions here already for things you could do to help chip away at that anxiety. Spending more time here, going to meetings, seeing a counselor or therapist, doing service work, etc.

You can overcome your anxiety - I am diagnosed with it and had horrible health anxiety and GAD for years. First thing you have to do is quit drinking though, and it won't be fun. But it will be worth it in the long run.

thisisme

Kayaking.
Cycling.
Advanced Degree.
Astronomy.
Photography.
World Travel.

I'll never go back.

Berrybean

Honestly, check out some AA meetings. Plenty of folk to connect with, all of whom will understand where you're coming from.

Plenty of people try to replace alcohol with things outside of themselves and end up cross-addicting. With gambling, drugs (prescription or street drugs), sex, relationships, porn, food, wild spending, becoming adrenaline junkies with high risk activities - whatever gives them a buzz for a while (and then comes back to bite them on the buttocks when things get out of control).

The answer is to learn how to achieve peace with ourselves, and how to deal with life on life's terms, and how to feel our emotions without needing to opt out. And thats called Recovery. Different people work on this in different ways, and there are threads on here about making a plan for sobriety that are helpful when thinking about how you could go about it. My own plan is based on the 12-step recovery program with a sponsor from AA (the 12-step program was devised by the founding members of AA, but is now used in various recovery programs, rehab, etc). Chances are there would be a meeting you could go to nearby . It is free. You don't need to enrol or register or even give anyone your full name (although being on first name terms is considered friendly lol).

There is no need to switch your dependence to anything else.

BB

SoberCAH

Somewhere in the AA literature it states that happiness is the byproduct of right living.

I have replace drinking with God and AA, which I view as an instrument of God.

In AA, I have found roomfuls of people who are cut from the same cloth as myself and I have become friends with many of them.

I try to learn and do God's will for me all day everyday (the 11th Step of AA), and try to be God's person and not my own (the St. Francis Prayer mandate), I try to be an excellent husband to my wife and employee to my firm.

Then the happiness came.

I make room for some hobbies, exercise and distractions, but I try to make them a secondary and not primary part of my daily existence.

The fear of having nothing (or little) productive to do on a day-in, day-out basis is the primary reason I don't retire.

bigsombrero

Like others, I didn't replace alcohol with anything - at least in the long run. I think the desire to "fill the void" is natural, but don't focus too hard on that. Instead of filling the void, you have to let that void heal and disappear.

You gain hobbies and activities over time, but they don't replace booze. The Alcohol Tree is gone - roots, branches, leaves, everything. I burned it to the ground and started a new orchard in a new field.

Gottalife

Life is the short answer, but that wasn't the immediate result of not drinking. There was some work to do. Initially I immersed myself in AA, and it worked as promised. I also had to find balance in other areas of my life and that took longer. Initially I had a job because I had to have a job. Going to work was a chore.

After a couple of years God set me up in a job I really loved. A little but later my wife came along. My life became more and more complete.

However in the early days my imagination deserted me. I struggled to get interested in anything. I had escape tactics of sleeping and reading light weight novels. Distraction didn't work because I quickly lost interest and anyway, the problems were still there when I came back from being distacted.

I think the early times were best spent in and around AA as much as possible, which got me well equipped to rejoin the mainstream of life without any need for alcohol.

Ken33xx

I didn't replace alcohol with anything as much it being sober allowed me an opportunity to attempt the things I had talked about doing for years.

Hand to get much done when you're constantly hungover and trying to keep it together day by day.

Add to this drinking heavily at age 24-25 is a lot easier on the body than say 34-35.

When I was pushing 30 I began to notice I couldn't bounce back so quickly anymore after a night of drinking. Unless I had a couple of hours to nap during the afternoon I would be fried the entire day.

I had a constant feeling of being burned out the last five years or so of my drinking.