tomsteve

I cant hate something that I allowed to destroy me.
I cant love something that destroyed me.

I have been placed in a position of neutrality

August252015

Neither. I don't expend any energy with feelings about it. It wasn't the problem anyway- I am. That's what I focus on- recovery.

SoberCAH

My feeling toward alcohol is that I respect it as still being bigger than I am after a few 24 hours of being clean and sober.

I neither love nor hate it.

But I certainly don't want any more of it.

NewRomanMan

Utterly indifferent to it. Don't care one way or another about alcohol.

JeffreyAK

I certainly used to love the effects of alcohol, if not alcohol itself. For a period after I quit, I did find myself conceptualizing alcohol as a kind of evil enemy, and at the time I probably would have said I hate alcohol.

Now, years later, I'm indifferent to the substance itself. After all, it's just a dumb purposeless chemical, and hating it is as silly as hating a dust-bunny on the floor. It's just something I'd never drink, like antifreeze or gasoline, because if I do I know it will cause me great harm.

FBL

I loved my beer until it nearly killed me...hence my username.

Now, I don't care enough to love it or hate it. What I do know, is that I love sobriety and all the blessings that it brings to my life.

ABetterWay1

The scent or sight of alcohol still makes me queasy, because when I stopped drinking 45 days ago, I was so darn ill I couldn't hold down anything I consumed, alcohol or otherwise.

So I guess you could say I hate it.

ABW1

soberlicious

Fighting these thoughts only gives them more power. A craving/thought can be experienced without being acted on.

Imagine if you could sit back and "watch" these thoughts float by you, each in it's own bubble. There might be hundreds of bubbles floating by at any given moment and if you think you must pop each of these bubbles and make them go away, you'd be fighting a losing battle. If you could sit away from them, watch them float by without trying to pop them or get away from them, they will float by on their own.

Cravings and thoughts are not harmful, acting on them is harmful. In my experience, engaging them with the "must make these thoughts go away" mentality really only serves to strengthen cravings in intensity and duration.

shortstop81

I don't really spend much time thinking about the alcohol itself - it's really ME that was the problem and that I'm now working on.

Actually, that first part isn't entirely true. I'm in early recovery and I still wistfully think of alcohol at times. But now I realize that that's just me having a craving, and I let it pass.

gatorman

I don't love or hate it. After almost 8'months sober I still think about and occasionally really miss my 3 or 4 drinks of bourbon in the evening but I know I'm better without. That keeps me going.

NYCDoglvr

I feel indifferent to alcohol after two decades of sobriety, seeing it as poison for me and not a problem for the majority of people.

BrendaChenowyth

I don't understand how anyone who has been addicted to it can say they're indifferent to it. So you could take it or leave it? So then if you don't feel a strong aversion to it, what stops you from taking it?

ScottFromWI

I don't drink because I know I'm an alcoholic. I feel no aversion to alcohol because alcohol itself is not the problem, I am the problem.

soberlicious

Once I made the decision to quit, it no longer matters how I feel about alcohol. I do not drink it regardless of how I feel about. Relying on an aversion to stop a behavior can be tricky because all your mind has to do is remove the aversion (easily done) and you are right back to engaging in the behavior again.

For me the question is moot. It matters not how I feel about alcohol. I never drink it.

CousinA

It's a dead plant. That's all.

-allan

graciepearl

For me I think its kind of been like the seven stages of grief. Shock that I became an alcoholic, disbelief that I can't stop, denial that I have a problem, bargaining to continue to drink, guilt , anger and depression over my struggles and then the realization that for me alcohol must stay dead and buried. May it rest in peace.

LeeJane

I don't care either way. It is just a product. One I don't want to use. My hub still drinks so there is always about 6 bottles of wine in the kitchen cupboard alongside the bottles of water, juice, cordial.

I have no emotional connection to any of these drinks.

Took a few years to get to this mind set. I am about 7 years gratefully sober.

LeeJane

Great post.

Amen. I am the problem too.

Jamie1

In one word, I say; HATE; I have alcohol. There is no any kinds of good things people find from alcohol. Govt. should ban this from our society.

Done4today

What is alcohol? I don't think about it. It was my medicine to get me from being me. Once I learned my disease and the solution, I got the real medicine that helps me instead of relieving me.