Welcome to the community @BostonJ10 
Personally I tried to live life with my addiction for a long time, but it always eventually fell apart, a little bit at a time until some collapse or some crisis. Eventually I realized that for me, I can’t have my addiction in my life at all, so I need to learn how to live a healthy life without it.
I learned from recovery groups and books, and from podcasts of people who have made it. I learned from people who are in recovery.
There’s a good list here:
Welcome to Talking Sober!