So there are 3 things that stick out to me here -
1) Ideally alcohol isn't part of your identity. Rather it's an enhancer. If it's how you previously released your inhibitions, then that's something to think about, seriously. It sounds in the realm of alcohol dependency. I don't think you want to be dependent on anything or anyone. Afterall...you just spent 6-months living in a cabin on an island with no electricity and running water.
2) Forcing yourself to do the uncomfortable things is what my therapist calls "exposure therapy". It works, but it sucks. I do it, because I pay my therapist $185/hour to help me figure this shit out. If nothing else, forcing yourself to do something because of the inherent cost (either literal of mental) is important. Afterall, you don't like being a quiet, pensive, moody, fuck. So, lighten up Francis!
3) "Regular Living" only means something if you make it mean something. Dude, you are still making new stories to tell that are fun and interesting. Contrast this when most people get a fucking caramel soy milk latte on their way to work and their whole story in life is, the barista made the drink wrong. I know what the fuck I'm talking about on this one, since my barista made my caramel soy milk latte wrong this morning.
TBH, I understanding all of your points, but 3 is one I connect to personally. One of the things I've struggled with professionally, is that I came to do the things I do along a very different path from many of my "peers". As a result, I have a very different set of life experiences, perspectives, opinions, and insights. It is sufficiently distinct that it unnerves people when they talk to me. It is sufficiently distinct that my insights are whole levels above what many of my colleagues are capable of providing. It is sufficiently distinct that I do not actually have very many true peers. Furthermore, I don't really sugar coat anything for anyone in what I do. Sometimes I hurt feelings, not necessarily out of malice, but out of not being able to give a fuck about petty shit that people care about. I basically do what I want to do, how I think it best to do it, and unless someone comes along with a good alternative idea, I keep on keeping on.
It is when I lose sight of my personal distinction, my own personal history, that I become the most frustrated with my work and life in general. What I have to remember, when that happens, is that no amount of work or life or change, takes away the experiences that I use to define me. No matter my responsibilities, EFT growth, or office politics, none of that changes who I am or that I did and do it my way. That's something that it seems fewer and fewer people can say. Many are stuck working dead-end jobs, even if they have retirement funds and take vacations. People are "working for the weekend". They are doing jobs they hate to pay bills for shit they don't need or even want. We have whole companies dedicated to helping you get rid of the shit you bought and paid for that you didn't need or really want. We have more reality TV than we have reality. Kids are spoonfed medications and Cheetos and parents wonder why they won't leave the house when they are 18. Can you imagine? I love my parents, but when it was time to move out, I was fucking ready to go. Raring for adventure, a chance to do things my way. The number of my colleagues who are going through the motions on a daily basis, effectively viewing their lives as deterministic, is appalling. They are here to carry out this chemical interaction to fulfill someone's deliverables on a government grant. A grant that the researcher who got it didn't even really want, because it just meant more work that was tedious and a distraction from the work they wanted to do. Some (many) view the grants as strictly the vehicle for fame and personal prestige, they'll walk on the backs of dozens if not hundreds of people, because they are slaves for the approval. They need external validation and verification to know their lives have meaning.
Do you need those things? I have never gotten the impression you needed external validation. So what if you have growing EFTs and a mortgage? It means something to you, because you're not only working for those things, but you're working to accomplish more. I can see how moving from a chaotic inchoate existence to a more deliberate and planned one is a culture shock. But that doesn't make it lesser, merely different.
I think Sinatra got it right -
For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way