Old 03-09-2018, 06:03 AM
  # 81 (permalink)  
AlericB
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Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Chester, UK
Posts: 684
I wasn't meaning you personally, I was using "you" in the more general sense.

You say you quit because you didn't want to be a drunk. In other words, you preferred a future life where you weren't a drunk to one where you were and presumably saw the action that you need to take to bring about that future possibility was to quit. There has been no coercion in your choice and I imagine then that you are happy with it.

However, that may not be true for everyone. It wasn't for me for example. I didn't want to be a drunk either but when I looked into the literature the only solution I saw was abstinence. I adopted this solution but reluctantly. Really I wanted to drink moderately but felt that this was something that I could not even think about because it was believing in the spaghetti monster or was AV, depending on the model. So've always felt that I have been doing something I never really wanted to do. I shouldn't need permission to think for myself but when you're faced with a problem like addiction, and whatever that means, you can be overwhelmed by it and can't see a way forward, so your tend to go off the mainstream opinion on the matter.

I've now reassessed all options, and there are three: continued use in the same way, trying moderation with all the associated risks and abstinence. I have chosen abstinence and this time it feels like a free choice so I'm much happier. Essentially the Freedom Model gave some sort of stamp of "authority" for me to calmly consider all my options and choose the one I really prefer. Does it mean I was weak to need this help? Probably but I'm not ashamed of that because I believe that sometimes we are at our strongest when we are at our weakest.
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