Originally Posted by
kes2 
One of the main stumbling blocks I've encountered, according to the experts, is that I I've always viewed my recovery as a fight against alcoholism, rather than a positive life choice that I've consciously made. It's taken me a hell of a long time to understand this and TBH it's a lightbulb moment in my recovery. Up until recently I've "white knuckled" through loads of days. My key worker has said it's impossible to make it with this mindset. Instead we've been focusing on the fact that it's a positive life choice I've made and everyday I choose not to drink because of the benefits. it isn't a fight but a positive decision.. Fighting is negative, choice is positive.
I agree that white knuckling it is probably not going to work for the vast majority of alcoholics. The problem for me was it didn't encourage me to change my thought processes so I could become at peace with not drinking. It took me switching from 'I have to stop' to 'I want to stop'. My words are different than yours, I didn't think about fighting it, but I think the concept is basically the same.
It wasn't easy to learn how to do it, changing how we think about anything is hard specially this, but it was very worth it for me.
All the best Kes!