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.
Answer
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.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Soulz , Answer Author : Walter
