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Old 08-15-2018, 10:37 AM
  # 13 (permalink)  
MindfulMan
No Dogma Please
 
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: SoCal
Posts: 2,562
I found this helpful for me, in IOP we did a specific exercise and made four lists;

The Pros of Drinking
The Cons of Drinking
The Pros of Not Drinking
The Cons of Not Drinking.

We did this individually and then came together as a group. It was very instructive. I find that shining a light on the addictive voice like this exercise does robs that voice of much of its power.

But there is no one size fits all method. I used AA in early sobriety and found that working the steps just didn't fit. Started with inpatient therapy. I came to recognize in inpatient the AA Step One. Normal drinkers don't end up in rehab not remembering how they got there and need medical detox. Looking back on my life it was a series of escalating drinking periods that ended up with uneasy abstinence. My life was clearly insane, and small amounts of alcohol and drugs invariably lead to a crisis. It might take several years, but it was inevitable. I then decided to use any means necessary to get and stay sober, and used a lot of them at different stages.
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