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Is this idiomatically correct?

Those feelings kept gnawing at me so I had to turn to alcohol to soothe my nerves even though I have not had a drop in a while.

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The context of the idiom is correct, the tense less so.

Based on the first half of your sentence (past continuous), it would be more natural to have past perfect I hadn't had a drop in a while rather than present perfect I haven't had a drop in a while.

Those feelings kept gnawing at me, so I had to turn to alcohol to soothe my nerves even though I hadn't had a drop in a while.

Alternatively, the first half of the sentence could be changed to present continuous These feelings keep gnawing ... and the rest of the sentence can stay the way it is.

These feelings keep gnawing at me, so I had to turn to alcohol to soothe my nerves even though I haven't had a drop in a while.

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These feelings keep gnawing at me, so I had to turn to alcohol to soothe my nerves even though I haven't had a drop in a while.

To keep the tense of the sentence consistent throughout, wouldn't this be better said as:

These feelings keep gnawing at me, so I have to turn to alcohol to soothe my nerves even though I haven't had a drop in a while.

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  • Why do you need to keep the tense of the sentence consistent throughout?
    – jimsug
    Commented Jul 12, 2014 at 23:15

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