Originally Posted by RobbyRobot

Staying resolved against temptation itself is a worthy enough fight to stand up for and be counted in as a winner. Fighting against ourselves otherwise however, in the name of being against drinking is something else again. Like others here, I never won my fight against alcoholism. The more I fought against drinking, the more miserable I became no matter what else I did I ended up with a lousy day - and I wasn't even drinking, lol. What made the difference was either drink away the urges, which never works out well, or face them for what they really were: my addiction ambivalence in play - ie both wanting and not wanting to drink all in the same moment.

For me, being open-minded to instant and drastic change is what saved my sorry azz. Doing the next right thing, whatever it needed to be to keep me moving forward without more drinking and at the same time surrendering to the reality that my addiction could only win if I drank or didn't change out my lifestyle.

Not fighting against the reality of my addiction was the exact needed change for me to continue on and change myself and my life. So yeah, hanging tough and digging in is cool, but beating ourselves into a bloody pulp against being open to change in the name of not drinking is an epic failure in our journey of being successful in life.