Peter sams asked:
Commit yourself to permanent abstinence from alcohol. You do not need alcohol to survive. The human brain is much smarter than the booze brain, which doesn’t understand that you can live without alcohol. You can outsmart your booze brain by learning to think of it as something other than yourself. This way, when it demands alcohol, you can tell it “never.” When you think about this, you might hear your booze brain objecting and pleading with you to “never say never.” It does not want you to quit drinking, because it thinks it will die. But you are smarter than it is, and you know you need to stop. Make a plan to quit for good. When you’re ready, say the words “I will never drink again.”
Enjoy your recovery from alcohol dependence. Don’t be afraid that you will slip or relapse, because that fear is the booze brain at work, trying to give you an excuse to give up. Once you practice the CORE process for a while, it will become impossible for you to go back to drinking, because anytime you think about having a drink, you will see that it is just your booze brain at work. Remember, only your booze brain wants to drink. You do not want to drink, you want to quit.
Let’s say you have a few drinks around the house, three times a week, and that light touch of drunkenness costs you three hours of productive thinking each time. Within one year, you’ll have shaved about one full month off your life. That’s a lot of lost CPU time that could have been put towards reading a book, writing a speech, playing a sport, or even starting a business. And this doesn’t even count the time lost waiting for your brain to resolidify the morning after a night on the town.
Clearly, there’s a conspiracy between the fast food industry and the liquor industry. Free will collapses under the weight of insobriety and convenience. With enough alcohol in your system, even the most wretched burger joint becomes an irresistible sanctuary.
Why alcohol is taking over your life is a question that will only be answered when you DON’T let it take over your life. It’s like a kind of non-living, evil dictator demon liquid that can only live and breathe and act in the world through you.
Admit you have a problem. You do not have to admit to being powerless over alcohol. You do have to admit that you have a problem and that you want to change. What constitutes a problem is determined by the level of detriment that the consumption of alcohol wrecks havoc on your health, your successful functioning in life–in your job, in your relationships, etc.
Avoid the labels. It is not necessary to announce to everyone that you are an alcoholic, or a recovering alcoholic. Share your victories with your allies, as they are the encouraging ones. Know that you do not have a disease, and you are not sick–quitting drinking will make you a much healthier person.
If quitting drinking seems like a task too large to tackle alone, it may be best to seek advice from professionals such as those available through DryOutNow.com. They can offer advice to those who wish to quit drinking and offer treatments that may be needed such as detox and rehab.