81–90 of 600 posts
When you can't smoke, if you stand and stare out of the window on your own, you're an antisocial, friendless idiot. If you stand and stare out of the window on your own with a cigarette, you're a philosopher. - RORY SUTHERLAND So I think addiction is about meaning. Addiction activities are always meaningful activities. May not be pleasurable activities but always meaningful. To quit a meaningful activity, you need to…
I've cut back by switching to non-alcohol beer. I've found that I enjoy the taste of beer, but I don't enjoy how shitty alcohol makes me feel. NA beer tends to solve that for me. Lots of good options coming out. * Just the Hazy by Sam Adams is top tier. * Athletic brewing is solely NA beer - lots of different varieties. * Heineken 0.0 is great * O'Douls amber is surprisingly passable as well I suspect the options wil…
Check out the Sinclair Method, which is basically taking Naltrexone before you drink. Also check out the book "The Cure for Alcoholism: The Medically Proven Way to Eliminate Alcohol Addiction" by Eskapa. I used this method, along with keeping a log of drinks consumed, to eventually quite drinking over the course of a year. I went from having anywhere from 3-8 drinks a night, every night, to eventually stopping comple…
100% also recommend the Sinclair Method. It weirds me out that it's not more widely known and is not being prescribed by doctors. I had to stop taking naltrexone after ~6 months because it was giving me insomnia / I started noticing an irregular heartbeat during the night (don't think this was naltrexone related though). But the effects persisted for a long time. It was like a complete reset with respect to my respon…
I have someone who holds me accountable. That individual started messaging me daily the count: 1 day without drinking, 2 days without drinking, 3 days ... Once we hit 100 days, it became 110 days without drink, 120 days without drink ...
What has helped keep the discipline:
1. Non-alcoholic beer. I second the recommendations of SkyPuncher. 2. I avoid situations where alcohol is present. 3. Friends and colleagues who don't pressure me to just have 'one drink'.
I perform stand-up comedy at clubs and bars. There's a culture of getting a free drink if you are not the head-liner and it isn't an open-mic. One way I maintain the discipline is to treat stand-up comedy like work - I need to have a clear mind to do the job and alcohol diminishes my capacity to perform.
All the best in your journey!
I've cut back by switching to non-alcohol beer. I've found that I enjoy the taste of beer, but I don't enjoy how shitty alcohol makes me feel. NA beer tends to solve that for me. Lots of good options coming out. * Just the Hazy by Sam Adams is top tier. * Athletic brewing is solely NA beer - lots of different varieties. * Heineken 0.0 is great * O'Douls amber is surprisingly passable as well I suspect the options wil…
All of these situations are tricky in their own ways. Yours is tricky in that you can go for a while without a drink and it seems you can stop in one night long enough to feel horrible (as opposed to continuing to drink until you pass out and push off the horrible feeling until the morning.)
I skimmed through the comments and noticed a few which perked my interest.
One is identifying with a drinking culture. We're bombarded by references to drinking in all forms of culture. People who drink, may do so in part because they identify with that culture. Drinking culture becomes part of them. In that case, I think just being aware of this and picking it apart in your own life can help move away from it. Then actively manage it within your personal relationships.
Another is being aware of the urges which arrive, and then simply observing them without acting on them. When you have an addiction, part of the difficulty of moving away from it is that voice which tells you that you should get that thing. It can be a convincing and creative voice. As with the above item, just being aware of it and picking it apart can help.
Some do like that "warm glow" feeling of a few drinks at times. That's fine for those people, but the time to stop is when you feel like you want or need to stop. The trouble is that a small drinking habit can spiral into a big drinking habit if the conditions are right. If you're already concerned, then it's good to cut it out completely.
Nowadays (after many many years) I'm again drinking alcohol (I try to keep it on weekends) but the urge to get drunk is gone luckily. Still there have been slippery slopes where I have accidentally drink couple too many but still it never leads to excessive drinking, I rather go to sleep then.