For me it's not so much that I want alcohol as it is I want to not be stressed out. Alcohol facilitates that. I can de-stress without it but I rarely have the time I would need to do after a workday. Having a beer/drink when I get home gets the ball rolling so I can enjoy things again rather than just sit around with fried nerves.
I'm an alcoholic and reading your replies you are definitely one too. "I can take it or leave it" is such an addict thing to say. Also drinking doesn't help with stress, it just kicks the can down the road making it harder to deal with in the future
I was in this picture. One or two, maybe even three tall ones every evening, for years. And then I discovered untappd and drinking became gamified.
A beer while watching TV can't be alcoholism, right?
For a while I'd been noticing things like a lack of energy and interest, bad sleep, being irritable and impulsive, and bad memory. After a while I had to take magnesium and other supplements. I just considered it all side effects of aging.
Now I've switched to alcohol free beer since about 2 months and every day I'm surprised how much better the QOL already is. I feel fully rested, feel more confident at work, can remember stuff my kids talk about. For lack of a word, I feel more present.
And that experience completely changed my opinion about drinking alcohol regularly.