Hi TYTM,
My husband quit playing pool when he quit drinking, and I asked him why he never played pool again. He said it wasn't because he might drink, but that he didn't enjoy pool in particular unless he was buzzed. He always used to leave when the bar got busy as the evening wore on anyway, because he cops used to park outside the bar at "quitting time" and arrest people for DUI.
I can't think of anything I quit doing when I stopped drinking. In fact, I added things. But then, for me drinking was never a social event anyway. I drank alone at home in front of the TV.
I like your rationale with the cigarettes and having the open pack. I guess that's what I was doing with the cold duck. Just having that bottle there and knowing I could have it at any time was enough to stop the AV in my head from shouting me into going to the store.
Thinking about this causes me to consider the concept of conditioned reflexes. It was always a series of actions for me: Tired --> liquor store --> drink. Hungover --> liquor store --> drink. Happy --> liquor store --> drink. Sad --> liquor store --> drink. Fill in what you like for #1. Any emotion (good or bad), or physically bad feeling, led to the same set of responses. Cutting out the middle one (liquor store) worked for me. Already having the booze would have been enough to make me drink anyway BEFORE I decided I was a non-drinker, but with the determination to break the pattern, the deprivation of the ABILITY to drink the alcohol wasn't necessary for me to quit drinking.
That brought up another interesting thought, at least interesting to me. Quite a few years ago, my brother-in-law went to a stop-drinking-place where they gave him electric shocks while he drank, in some kind of aversion therapy. He proclaimed "Success!" after a few sessions of treatment, sure he would NEVER DRINK AGAIN! That was something like 30 years ago, for most of which including now he has continued to be a closet whiskey drinker. I don't hear much talk these days about aversion therapies, but I know they used to do that for smoking as well.
FT