Good luck man. It`s not that hard if you really want it.
I am 8 years and one month sober. Life really gets better.
The thing is I was a functioning alcoholic. I wouldn't goto work drunk or drink on the job I never would wake up and start drinking on my days off and it never had a negative impact on my work. I'm not a violent drunk either so I wouldn't get into fights with people and it didnt effect my friends or my family. However my wallet is a different story. I would always like to go out although I would stay in alot too it all depended on where I was at really.
It is scary how much money I have saved though in just two weeks and I'm trying not to think about how much money I have wasted over the years because its easily in the thousands. Being home and not traveling has made it easier because instead of drinking at a bar ill go to my local skatepark, go to a hockey game (at a penguins game you literally cannot afford to get drunk there unless you go full ham in the parking lot), and a bunch of my friends every weekend we all get together and have Smash Brothers/NHL 15 tournaments and marathon games like The Evil Within.
I think alot of it really had to do with me being on the road. I have friends in almost every state that I've been to that I keep in touch with but the majority of the time I'd be somewhere where I didn't know anyone and I didn't have my own ride because we drove my boss' truck everywhere so my exploring was limited to walking and paying for overpriced cab rides. I also never never EVER would drink and drive because a DUI would ruin everything I'm trying to accomplish and they are not lying to you when they say you can't afford it.
When I got home I had a welcome back party and then after that I went cold turkey. I had the shakes the first few days but they faded by the third or fourth day. I have also drastically cut back smoking I was at near a pack a day now I'm down to eight on average. I'm trying to cut down on the smoking one week at a time and no vapors and e-cigs simply don't work for me.
What I really want though is to smoke some damn weed its been years since I've been blazed but due to drug testing I can't even risk it. Yeah I know there's fake piss and all that but it's simply not worth the risk in my opinion.