You are well ahead of the game, congrats! As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is never anything linear about the recovery process. You may do fantastically at first and then relapse. Or you may be one of the lucky ones who can simply shut the door on drinking and go on with your life. Don't be hard on yourself. But you need to realize that the alcohol has its hooks in you and wants you back. You were friends once, remember?

I don't know if you romanticize drinking but I sure did...I quit school and ran away to sea at 19. Before I even set foot on a boat I was drunk with the idea of it. Sitting in a bar in Honolulu with a bunch of tattooed seamen was heaven to me at that time, a powerful, potent spell of my own conjuring....and so my drinking lasted 20 yrs; I don't believe it really become alcoholic in nature until a few yrs ago. At that time, I was engaged to be married and realized too late that she wasn't for me and the fallout put me into a tailspin. I was otherwise at the top of "my game" as they say, in work and in my personal life. It wasn't all an illusion, I was often very happy but things started to slip, imperceptibly at first. Being bipolar did not help matters. Life can get away from you, whether you are drinking or not. But having one's head clouded by plumes of alcohol makes it doubly hard to see things clearly.

"Think the drink through" is one of the more helpful phrases I've heard in AA meetings. If you are able to conjure up how you feel after drinking and use that as a tool, it will be helpful when you are tempted again to uncork a bottle. You have to change your habits too, be proactive about it. You may have to distance yourself from friends and environments, at least temporarily. But you must find good replacements for these-and it sounds like you already have a number of interests that will serve you well. Good luck, again, and if you have any specific questions, fire away.