For a long time, my alcohol consumption was sorta like a wart or a mole, not anything to be desired, but just another quirky aspect of my personality. The time came to change this view so that I understood my consumption was an addiction in all aspects, and more like a cancer that was growing and consuming my life. Like cancer, it was taking over and preparing to rob me of a marriage, a family, a home, a job and ultimately my life.
Like a cancer, I cut it away from my physical person by getting rid of alcohol in my home and personal life. I also cut it away from my psyche too - I separated my urges to drink or thoughts of drinking from 'me', and assigned them to my weakness, to my addiction, to my fear of facing my life. 'I' no longer drink, and the thought of ever drinking again comes from part of me that will kill me if I fail to master it. This 'it' is only one thing, it is helpless and mindless, and has only the power I decide that it can have.
I chose to believe that I was stronger than my weakness, and that I deserved a life without it. I cut it out, excised it, amputated it.
Will-power has a bad name, and rightly so in my esteem. It conveys an attitude of deprivation and self-denial, like some sort of weight loss program. In this context, it is more like a 'won't power', and I am not so good at that sort of thing. I can work toward something, I can put my mind and heart and soul into working for something positive much better.
I chose to believe in myself, in my strengths, in my goodness, and decided to make the right decision for the first time in so many years. I chose to encourage my thinking brain and cut away my drinking brain. I quit.
I am sober since my join date, JazzFish, and I am no longer addicted to alcohol. My life now has its own measure of acceptance, peace, joy and beauty. You can have your own measure of life too. I believe you deserve it.
AVRT has shown me how to never drink again and to never change my mind.