I enjoy when I’m able to respond to members via pm, a more one-on-one type of situation. And I’m going to share a bit of a pm from a member on another forum and my reply to it…
Originally Posted by a member
I'm surprised (sort of) at how many times a day it crosses my mind to drink. Basically I was using it for everything. It was just what I had in my right hand, or very close by at all times.
Originally Posted by my reply
I think you hit on a key point, realizing just how much and how often we turned to alcohol for help or escape. No matter what happened or what was said, we thought alcohol would help. And I'm not going to lie because at least for me, it did help me escape even though I knew whatever it was would have to be faced sooner or later. Yet, I continued to drink, that's how powerful my addiction was. The hard part for me was finding an alternative to drinking when those situations arose, so I mostly used prayer and gratitude.
It's easy for me to say that things get easier with time, and it's hard to believe for a lot of people, but it does get easier and life is so much better. Stick with it and you'll find out, I'll make a believer out of you yet lol. You can do this, you have it in you to beat this thing, just never surrender...
A good exercise for everyone, in my opinion, is what my counsellor had me do. She told me to sit down and write down the things that trigger me to drink. Then I was supposed to come up with alternatives to those situations that wouldn’t include drinking. It was a very simple exercise because I didn’t take it serious. I’d about had enough of pro/con, good/bad lists and one more wasn’t going to help. But as a bit of time went by, I understood why she wanted me to do this; to get at the root of my drinking and find ways to handle those triggers without drinking. In some cases, I just couldn’t come up with an alternative, so I figured those would be the time to use prayer and gratitude, or worst case, let go and let God.
When I thought of my triggers, I realized I always reached for the easy way out, escape by alcohol. Why? Because I didn’t want to do the work, I wanted to ignore and escape even for just a few hours. But I never really settled anything, just put it aside until it became a problem again, and then I’d just drink it away again. The real relief is when we can face our problems and fears head on, deal with them, and move on. It didn’t take long before I figured out that drinking was causing a lot of my problems and that by quitting drinking, I was have less and less to drink about…