I haven't had a problem with alcohol in a long time nor do I struggle with any urges but I want to warn of something. My husband recently told me "you got much more severely ill when you stopped drinking. Looking back, he's very right. I truly drank to self medicate and it actually worked quite well for me for a long time. I was a very functional drinker and it helped me to decompress for a long time. It also caused me problem sometimes so it was like playing Russian roulette if I drank and I'm not a gambler. I guess I want to warn that if someone decides to stop drinking and has been using it to truly self medicate, get support because you could get far worse before getting better. I think it's in most people's best interest to not drink with mental illness but it's important to have lots of other coping mechanisms in place when stopping. (((Hugs)))