>>213705134This is accurate. When you're drinking you forget how good real life really is, and replace it with the best your new lifestyle can offer. This itself degrades to lower highs as time goes on, and you eventually live for the moment you can drink again and get to that 'hilariously surly spiteful crazy person.'
You only realize how limited your emotions and capabilities are/were when you go through the pain of cleansing this 'daemon' and remember how easy it was to be happy and accomplished before drinking.
Removing the cloud of substance abuse is akin to finding God, and remembering your worth and abilities. Confidence, less stress, thicker skin, better looking... everything seems to reset and you look back at your days of drinking as a dark time.
SSRI's and many prescribed pharmaceuticals cause the same cloud and keep you from being your best. I know this all from experience.
The hardest battles are best fought head on, and the victories the sweetest.