Dalek

Have you read through the main AVRT discussion thread on here?

Do you drink on the job, or only after you get off work? You know that what goes up must come down, and that what comes down must go back up. The alcohol may be putting you in the "OOOOH Zone" temporarily, but it is probably adding to your stress. Come the next morning and work day, your nerves are on fire, coming up from the previous down, and you are on edge, even more stressed.

Also, do you really think that the Beast gives a damn about coping with work stress, or your job at all, for that matter? It may be telling you that you need a drink to cope so you can (presumably) keep working in spite of stress, but if it really came down to just one drink or your job, it would say "to hell with the job! drink!"

The only stress the Beast is concerned with is the stress IT feels from deprivation. All the rest is smoke and mirrors.

No easy quit experience here, at least not at first. I, too, was "coping" with work stress, and then, when I was too drunk to keep a job, I was "coping" with the stress of not working. When I finally got a job again, the Beast told me I needed a drink to "cope" with the new job, which was not as good as the one I lost on account of drinking! See a pattern? Work or no work, good job or bad job, the Beast wants that drink.

You need to drop all conditions for abstaining, ie, "I will not drink as long as I am not stressed." How stressed are you willing to get and still not drink, RDBplus?

Lean into the Beast. The next time it tells you that you need to drink to "cope" with stress, tell it "Oh, yeah? You want to see some real stress? How about I watch you squirm and suffer from starvation? I'm going to kick back and enjoy the show. It's payback time!"

Learn to appreciate its suffering, and realize that you are not suffering as you feel it suffer. The Beast has no choice but to bow down to superior force, and when faced down like this, it will probably cut and run.