Is it a regular thing to feel extremely depressed and empty after quitting alcohol?

I’ve recently quit alcohol for the foreseeable future seeing as I need to focus on my health, relationships and life progress in general. Things hadn’t been going so well which is why I started drinking more in the first place. While I was still depressed to a certain extent while drinking, it actually felt more manageable then than it does now. It would create problem after problem for me, but I would still not feel the sense of hopelessness I do now. I still wanted my life to change, and wanted to achieve specific goals or obtain certain things; that’s really the main thing. Right now, everything seems impossible to achieve and I feel so empty inside. At the furthest lows, it feels like even achieving all the things I wanted to it would still not mean a thing; as if nothing could make me happy, not money, not fulfillment in my career, or a loving relationship with a beautiful woman… I wake up with these visceral gut feeling of dread every morning wondering how I’m going to fill my day. Searching for a new job currently and again, all feels pointless; I don’t even want to try.

I guess this is what I’ve been trying to run away from by consuming so much alcohol in the past. Much easier when everything was turned down and I didn’t blame myself for everything or feel like a useless piece of shit.

Should also add that not long ago I had also made the decision to quit alcohol, and I didn’t experience any of this. I was in a relatively good and optimistic state of mind and was feeling more clear headed and energetic with every day that passed. Then my relationship fell apart and I went into a downwards alcohol fueled spiral which made me finally decide to seriously cut the alcohol out.

I think the main thing that is making me feel this hopeless and depressed is that back then it seemed like I had some agency in the matter; I was voluntarily choosing to do something because I knew it was right, but no one or nothing was forcing me to. Now I feel like I’ve been robbed of all of that and I just feel like a sick and depressed nobody with nowhere to go, no one to talk to and not even the bubbly embrace of alcohol to turn to in my loneliness.