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Old 03-11-2019, 04:15 PM
  # 25 (permalink)  
MesaMan
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Colorado
Posts: 3,474
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Hi Tammy ~

I've followed your Posts and progress here on SR, and will try to offer a few insights...

The critical variable in your Opening Post that jumps off the Page at me is that creeping sensation that '[you] know you're going to drink'. That Self-Sabotage reads like pure AV that has been got under control for long periods. As in, a stretch of several Years.

As with most all others, I used to play all kinda Games with myself. Take just a 'few' glugs of Vodka from one of 3 - 1.75 Liter Handles of Vodka I had stashed in assorted hiding places. Drink early in the Day to be kinda-functional when my Wife got home from Teaching High School. Rotate purchases between multiple Liquor Stores. Taper down to drinking 'only' a Liter of Sake, since it's 'only' 15% Alcohol. The crap we do to ourselves, eh? None of these Games are ever overcome by pure Logic, IMO. As logical a Guy as I am. Logic might enable us to more-clearly see such BS Constructs, but Logic doesn't get us through all such episodes, right?

I know a full-on Kleptomanic. She's stolen her Sisters' valuables for Decades. Even a Friend's Money from their House, when invited to a Party. The planning and stealth and conniving moves of this Oxy Addict are thought through in a weird way. So is planning in advance to drink 'just one' at a Wedding. So were my bizarre Coping Mechanisms. This malarkey is what Addicts descend into doing. No shame in it really; IF Addiction Games are understood, and accepted for the bizarre Behaviors they are.

Acceptance creates understanding.

When I finally got a lucid period of getting a grip on such idiocy is when I could put together a forceful Plan to fully purge such Self-Sabotaging out of my Life. Otherwise, it was gonna continue until my premature Death. 'Boy, I'll show me! I'll play my clever Drinking Games until it kills me'!

I was then relentless about avoiding Boozy Socializing. For a while; however long it took. For me. I also knocked off the weird Construct of playing Games with myself to enable Daytime Drinking. It had long become 24/7 Intoxication. For Years [12]. Early Retirement at 48 made such Drinking even easier. No Job to lose. I had several minor Car Wrecks, but these were solo incidents. No other Drivers. No Witnesses. This gave me time to fabricate BS scenarios as to what had happened in these wrecks.

Being a fairly bright Guy, I found I enjoyed thinking I was SO clever, I could pull off such 'aren't I clever' Games. This realization was a huge part of ending the Self-Sabotage. Like Binge Eating on the QT. How the Brain both justifies and executes such Games is a truly-bizarre aspect of Addiction.

I saw that digging deep and challenging myself was the Core Challenge. THEN, any Program or composite Tool Kit I needed to work diligently after that Epiphany was likely to succeed. So, although I'm a RR/AVRT Guy, this component of deep change from within was critical. AVRT is 'just' the Tool. At the end of the Day, staunch commitment summoned up from way down deep is what got me through decreasing episodes of Self-Sabotage. It was not unlike Training for the Olympics: I had to go >all in<. As is often acknowledged here in SR 'Secular', 'it ain't easy, but it is simple'.

To distill all this verbiage down to a phrase for your Tablet, may I suggest 3 words:

Don't Self-Sabotage

I hope this helps somehow. Your prior 2 Year Sober Stint is amazing. Your Mind is your Friend. Let it lead as you create periods of clear thinking. You've done it before. Stay close to SR, here.

All the best to you! Create the Life you deserve.
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