Lillith

That I couldn't handle the stresses of my life without it. That drinking would esse my problems. And that almost everyone drinks and plenty of people drink more than me. The mind can sure be deceiving.....

Gottalife

There was no situation or circumstance, good or bad, that could not be made better with a few drinks. The bit my mind neglected to tell me was that I could not have just a few drinks.

EndGameNYC

That I had no interest in stopping. I didn't. I stopped when I could no longer take care of myself.

SoberCAH

I’m an alcoholic - I’m supposed to drink.

It’s really embarrassing to remember how stupid I was.

Good idea for a thread.

MaximaMan91

Victim of a home invasion at age 20. In my mind, the world did me wrong and I deserved the ability to "relax" after what I went through.

I was a loner, used alcohol to help get confidence with girls (for a while with much success) until things started getting sloppy. I used to drink massive amounts of coffee and take milk thistle with b vitamins, telling myself I was only in my 20s and that I could drink and get away with it because I would stop later. MY body would heal I said. Only problem, when I tried stopping later, a bunch of time went by and it was almost a decade in, and that was after a DWI which I narrowly escaped by the grace of God with a good lawyer, followed by a severe car accident that broke my hip and required me to get a hip replacement at age 26. I was driving drunk, and I got away that one without being charged, but I ended up with a broken hip and a ruined summer after a severe surgery all at the age of 26 while a college student struggling to make it. At the end of it all, one thing I am thankful about is having parents who got me to graduate college (albeit at the age of 27 because I was too busy getting W's every semester because I would go out drinking during the day and pass out by 3PM in my bed). Yup.

We'll all make excuses. We will all tell ourselves we deserve it. Maybe it was our environment. Maybe a girl or man broke our hearts. Maybe we didnt have parents. But at the end of the day, we have to come to terms with ourselves, or else we are feeding our eventual demise. Either we take care of it like adults, or it will take care of us into the grave (literally).

ciowa

My mind justified alcohol in many ways and here are a few of them
"I pay for my own drinks, have my own place, job, car, no family and drinking is what independent people do"
"Drinking makes me creative, thoughtful and able to socialize better with people"
"drinking is responsible for part of my personality and without it Ill be less of a person"
"my drinking doesn't impact anyone else so its ok"
and eventually
"Drinking is ******* up my life, so Im going to get sober for a long time, but Im going to go out this one last time and i will make sure I control everything and end on a good note"

All of this stuff was false but I kept repeating it to myself until I had to face the reality that I was wrecking my life and a couple more awful episodes away from burning too many bridges to come back from.

anxiousrock

All of these sound familiar

Grungehead

I first thought I may have a drinking problem in the mid 80's when I was only in my mid 20's, and during my final few years of drinking I was in my early 50's. I also had a couple of long stretches of sobriety during that time (6+ years one time and 7+ years another time). I found that my mind was able to come up with different rationalizations for continuing to drink at different stages of my alcoholism.

When I was younger it was usually something along the lines of I'm young and I will slow down once I get married and have kids. Then there was the old faithful of I'm no worse than others I know. Of course the vast majority of people I chose to hang out with drank like me. Then the reasons shifted more towards drinking helped my anxiety, or sadness or whatever excuse of the day I could come up with. Towards the end of my drinking the reasons turned much darker once I became hopeless of ever managing to quit again.

Luckily I had a moment of clarity that came out of the blue one day and I reached out for help. That was nearly 7 years ago and I'm very grateful I was afforded that brief respite. In one week I will have opportunity to celebrate 7 years sober for the 2nd time.

JudahsLion

maximaMan91 thank you for this wisdom

Fallow

I am not as bad as the people in the meetings.

I am not as bad as so and so on SR.

Branches

"Wine is good for my heart.""So-and-so and whositz drink just as much as I do. and they're not alcoholics""I only have three (good-size) glasses of wine a night.""Alcohol helps my rotator cuff injury so I can sleep."

3PHXWATER

I only drink at night so it's ok. I mix it with vitamin water. I drink tons of electrolyte water throughout the day. I need it to sleep. I do ultrasound for a living, so I regularly check my liver.