steve-in-kville

I've been doing a lot of pondering the past few days... what is my trigger with booze? How is it I can go for days or even a week but then something snaps and I buy a bottle and start drinking again??

And I think I've nailed it! Somehow whiskey just seemed to *enhance* all the good times in life and took the edge off all the bad things!! It was habit to me.

Case in point: we have a little taste of fall temps here in PA right now. Fall is my favorite season. So I thinks to myself: I would really enjoy this near-fall evening sippin' on some bourbon. And I almost found myself stopping at the liquor store!!

Another scenario, to the opposite: I have some in-laws I could do without (who doesn't??) and they are coming to visit. So get lubricated a bit before having to deal with them. Takes the edge off, makes the visit more bearable.

It must be the habits I've maintained for the past 12 years. Alcohol solves everything yet gets me no where.

LadyBug66

Sounds very similar to me

silentrun

Alcohol solves everything

I think that right there is the biggest trick of all.

steve-in-kville

Its a mindset that's gotta be broken. But it seems its taking a while for me.

EndGameNYC

For me, all the mind games started with the cravings and the obsession to drink. There was never a good reason not to drink.

DoubleBarrel

I hear ya. We are having the same fall temps here, and boy did it bring back memories for me, in fact just today.

I think the more I make new, sober memories, hopefully the less thats all I remember.

One reason to get a whole year under your belt. You have a sober Christmas, sober summer, etc, all to look back on.

wiscsober

Trust me, myself and many others have thought and felt like you do.

There might be a few things to figure out besides why you are triggered. IMO

You didn't mention you are alcoholic....certainly your binges are causing you great concern.

Or if you are involved with a recovery program along with SR.

So the best I can offer is that the thought that alcohol solves anything is irrational, and that it is affecting your physical and mental health.

Commit to abstinence while your in-laws are there and note the differences compared to drinking when they are there.

That isn't going to keep you in long term sobriety but it is a start....

otter

When I read the thread title I thought for sure this was going to have something to do with weddings and dancing.

Deckard

The title of this thread reminds me of the quote from The Usual Suspects: "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."

gaffo

The trick is that quitting drinking is sometimes really hard, especially in the beginning.

Boleo

In my early days of drinking, at least the first 10 years, alcohol really did enhance everything and even solve a few problems. Unfortunately for me, it eventually failed to solve anything. That's when it turned around and bit me.

Davestwincam

I can relate Orion, I have a special weakness for good bourbon. The awful hangovers are not worth it for me anymore. I dumped 1/3 of a bottle down the drain this morning.

MattyBoy

"Alcohol is the cause of and solution to all life's problems!" Homer Simpson hit the nail on the head.

dwtbd

I finally figured out what my 'trigger' was, I really really liked being drunk. By figure out, I mean that I obviously knew I enjoyed it , but I now realize that my choice to indulge in that pleasure was becoming the only activity I wanted to partake of, to the exclusion of family, and practically everything else in existence. It had to stop.
Fall like evenings with a cigar and sipping bourbon in moderation for me was a fantasy, the sipping just never stopped. I know , for me, the only stop is in not starting the sipping, heh just that word makes it sound small and innocent , sipping, but it only takes more time to sip a whole bottle, either way it was going to be the whole bottle or blackout which ever came first. So.. because I loved it so much, I absolutely can't.

longbeachone

My husband and I have to entertain clients often (weekly) with dinners out, sports events, the theater, etc... Not only are these places triggers (everyone else drinks, especially the clients), but my husband relies on me to carry the conversation, which is so much harder sober than sloshed. But it's worth it to me to stay sober, thank God!

newpower

The biggest trick is that it turns on you and becomes your biggest enemy causing more problems than it could solve

lillyknitting

It's a mind altering substance perpetuated by government and the alcohol industry to make us feel we cannot in any way whatsoever enjoy our lives to the full without it. Luckily for the above mentioned industries because of the very addictive nature of the drug they make millions out of us. And that my friend is a fact. It's is heavily advertised, consciously and subliminally. It is paraded as the ultimate glamourous past-time for parties, soires and fun times. It is surreptitiously displayed on tv programs as a necessary and intelligent relaxant after a hard days work by the most professional of people, then, in the next breath they broadcast programs of low life scumbags fighting and pillaging the streets just to let us know that it's not the drug at fault but the dreadful people who imbibe in it.

UnixBer

The biggest trick of alcohol is that it makes you blame everything else but itself for your problems. It makes you think crazy thoughts to justify using it.

But, it has no IQ of its own. It is an addictive substance, and addiction is a complex issue.

dwtbd

poppycock and excus'ism'

unless there is documented proof that there was no alcohol addiction prior to the invention of television and even then it will still not prove causation