Humans are adaptive. We get used to feeling bad. I got used to it when I was drinking more. Waking up hungover, needing a beer, counting the hours at work until I can go and get a drink to stop the shaking.
I had my own ways to deal with the pain and I got used to it. It took some time but when I got back into working out, or drawing or writing, or trying to learn a new language. I was just trying to distract myself to build up enough habits that didn't involve drinking.
It's tough, but it's not. You got to do it everyday. That's the hard part, but the tasks are simple. I tell my wife things that I think would help her. Like writing down her thoughts, but she had a bad experience growing up with her mom reading her diary and randomly quoting it back to her. She has trust issues with that.