I used to drink so that I didn't have to deal with my emotions, self hate and loneliness being two big ones, until the addiction so completely took over that I was just drinking for the sake of drinking. Now that I've been sober for a while I'm learning to deal with my emotions and making changes in my life to deal with the loneliness. But there's definitely a sense of coming out of a fog - I sometimes can't believe how different my life is and my feelings are today from this time a year ago. I still have a long way to go, but at least now I have hope which I didn't have when I was drinking.

--splitimage