Originally Posted by
AlericB 
These accounts are really encouraging. This encouragement really helps, helps me anyway, because like a lot of the biggest choices we make in our life, making a BP is not a purely rationally made decision.
While we're still drinking, we can't possible know what it would be like to be someone who has permanently quit. Making a BP is a transformative experience and as far as drinking goes we may feel like we've become a new person. This is obviously great but the downside to its transformative nature is that we can't know what it would be like to make a BP until we've made it. Our future non-drinking self is fundamentally different as far as drinking goes, in our values and in what we enjoy for example, from who we are while we are still drinking. This difference is that our future self has undergone the experience of making a BP and until we have that experience we are simply unable to view drinking from out future, post-BP perspective.
But reading accounts like these may encourage us to take a step of faith/trust and make a BP even though rationally we may be feeling unsure as to whether or not it is the best plan for us.
Purely rational? Hmmmm... For very many, the decision to quit drinking wasn't a short term or quick decision. I've tinkered with the idea of quitting for over a decade. I fooled myself many times thinking I would cut back or take some time off. I did once quit for a year. And then right back to pounding beers on the anniversary of my quit for a year date. Yeah, I was counting down the days till I could drink again. But there comes a time, whether it is the cumulative effects, outside pressure, just got tired of it, or a single event - it took an event to wake me up, that we all just know it's time.
As for the the future outcomes and etc., I have read a lot about alcoholism from the scientific standpoint to the "it gets better" anecdotes from other reading to believe that being a non-drinker has more upside than downside. When I lost my job I swore I was never going to let alcohol affect my life ever again. So I made a big plan before I knew there was such a thing as a "Big Plan". It was only later I discovered this forum and AVRT. And when I read about it it made perfect sense. I tried and attended 'other' things and all it did was make me feel I will suffer for the rest of my life with that inevitable 'relapse' looming over my shoulder and as long as I made today I could worry about tomorrow tomorrow. That's no way to live. I read the 'crash course' and it made perfect sense. By making a big plan, I no longer had to be concerned about failing because I didn't do x, y or z, or stop going to sessions with some stranger telling me how to do it. Drinking was no longer an option. As long as i was able to recognize the "beast" I was in charge of me.
I think of the guy who did that "Supersize Me" documentary. He ate nothing but burger king super size everything for a month - slowly killing himself in the process. But he knew it was for only a month and he would be able to recover. I guess what I mean is that by removing the poisons from our system we are able to get well - both physically and mentally. How can one not think that quitting alcohol will be an improvement?