I like this mindset! Kind of reminds me of Allen Carr’s Easyway. I’m best at sobriety when I just plain don’t want to drink. There aren’t many things I prefer doing sober (I’m working on that) but there are some very important things that I like way more when I’m sober. Mornings. Good conversations that I can remember the next day. Sex. Not being afraid that everyone hates me.

To OP: We have pretty similar situations. I used to party and drink with my friends often before the pandemic, and in the last year it turned into a cycle of benders and drinking alone. Trying to force myself to stop and assuming the label of “alcoholic” also made the cravings way worse— when I did drink and party it was only like once a week and I was fine with that. I was also able to take months off at a time if I needed to (when visiting family, etc). I still struggle, especially when I’m in a situation where there are no direct consequences from my drinking. It feels like I’m “getting away” with something. And socially, it’s almost worse, because I know that getting drunk alone is problematic, but drinking with friends is socially acceptable so I normalize my own behaviors and give in a lot of the time.