Playing the tape
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 34
Playing the tape
I had to start a new thread quoting soberwolf in a reply that was made to me in an earlier thread. It really hit home with me.
"There are many tools that are useful in fighting against it like what your doing now talking with us this is pro active as is 'playing the tape' where you see yourself at the end of your drinking rather than that first drink"
Whenever I would get up in the morning I was for SURE I wasn't going to drink that day. Then as the day passed my AV would convince me to drink little by little. At first I would fight it off but by 5pm when I got into my car and shut the door it was 100% YES. I was going to drink. I would convince myself by picturing me relaxing on the back porch or grilling out hamburgers with A beer, a SINGLE beer. You know, the way we see others that don't have addiction and can have only one. It looks so peaceful in my head, painting the picture of me having that ONE drink. So of course I stop to get beer on my way home. Then while at the beer isle I stare at the beers for a while. I tell myself to get a 6pack because, duh, that's way more than enough. But who was I kidding? That 6 pack would be gone in an hour. So I would grab the 16oz 12 pack and a pack of cigarettes EVERY SINGLE DAY. Then that peaceful relaxing time I pictured in my head ended 12 beers later hugging the toilet and forgetting everything that had happened most of the evening. So if I were to have pictured myself at the end of the night instead of the beginning I may have saved myself many blackout nights, fights with my boyfriend, regretful texts and hungover mornings.
Thanks for that soberwolf. I am on day 12 and this will help me in my days to come.
"There are many tools that are useful in fighting against it like what your doing now talking with us this is pro active as is 'playing the tape' where you see yourself at the end of your drinking rather than that first drink"
Whenever I would get up in the morning I was for SURE I wasn't going to drink that day. Then as the day passed my AV would convince me to drink little by little. At first I would fight it off but by 5pm when I got into my car and shut the door it was 100% YES. I was going to drink. I would convince myself by picturing me relaxing on the back porch or grilling out hamburgers with A beer, a SINGLE beer. You know, the way we see others that don't have addiction and can have only one. It looks so peaceful in my head, painting the picture of me having that ONE drink. So of course I stop to get beer on my way home. Then while at the beer isle I stare at the beers for a while. I tell myself to get a 6pack because, duh, that's way more than enough. But who was I kidding? That 6 pack would be gone in an hour. So I would grab the 16oz 12 pack and a pack of cigarettes EVERY SINGLE DAY. Then that peaceful relaxing time I pictured in my head ended 12 beers later hugging the toilet and forgetting everything that had happened most of the evening. So if I were to have pictured myself at the end of the night instead of the beginning I may have saved myself many blackout nights, fights with my boyfriend, regretful texts and hungover mornings.
Thanks for that soberwolf. I am on day 12 and this will help me in my days to come.
Giving up is NOT an option.
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 7,808
Congratulations on 12 days, blink!
yep, playing those tapes is a very powerful tool. One that I learned in treatment, and has really really helped me. I have a few favorite tapes to play from the past - the one that usually works the best is of me, sitting in the back of a police car in handcuffs, because I had just gotten my 3rd DUI. That was the night I had my last drink, in December of 2014. If I ever feel like drinking (very infrequent now, thank goodness), all I have to do is picture that night, or one of many other embarrassing or downright dangerous nights, and the desire to drink vanishes. I do not think about those past events in order to make me feel bad about myself, just in order to remember what it was like, and why I do not want to ever go down that road again.
yep, playing those tapes is a very powerful tool. One that I learned in treatment, and has really really helped me. I have a few favorite tapes to play from the past - the one that usually works the best is of me, sitting in the back of a police car in handcuffs, because I had just gotten my 3rd DUI. That was the night I had my last drink, in December of 2014. If I ever feel like drinking (very infrequent now, thank goodness), all I have to do is picture that night, or one of many other embarrassing or downright dangerous nights, and the desire to drink vanishes. I do not think about those past events in order to make me feel bad about myself, just in order to remember what it was like, and why I do not want to ever go down that road again.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2016
Posts: 34
Originally Posted by MLD51 
Congratulations on 12 days, blink!
yep, playing those tapes is a very powerful tool. One that I learned in treatment, and has really really helped me. I have a few favorite tapes to play from the past - the one that usually works the best is of me, sitting in the back of a police car in handcuffs, because I had just gotten my 3rd DUI. That was the night I had my last drink, in December of 2014. If I ever feel like drinking (very infrequent now, thank goodness), all I have to do is picture that night, or one of many other embarrassing or downright dangerous nights, and the desire to drink vanishes. I do not think about those past events in order to make me feel bad about myself, just in order to remember what it was like, and why I do not want to ever go down that road again.
yep, playing those tapes is a very powerful tool. One that I learned in treatment, and has really really helped me. I have a few favorite tapes to play from the past - the one that usually works the best is of me, sitting in the back of a police car in handcuffs, because I had just gotten my 3rd DUI. That was the night I had my last drink, in December of 2014. If I ever feel like drinking (very infrequent now, thank goodness), all I have to do is picture that night, or one of many other embarrassing or downright dangerous nights, and the desire to drink vanishes. I do not think about those past events in order to make me feel bad about myself, just in order to remember what it was like, and why I do not want to ever go down that road again.
Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Southern Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,618
12 days is awesome!
I , too, am on day 12 myself
I first heard of "playing the tape through" here on SR and it most certainly HAS helped me a lot in the past and I'm sure it will continue to in the future
I , too, am on day 12 myself
I first heard of "playing the tape through" here on SR and it most certainly HAS helped me a lot in the past and I'm sure it will continue to in the future
Giving up is NOT an option.
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 7,808
Internal tapes you play in your head of things that happened while you were drinking, or things that could happen. A way of picturing what could happen if you drink again, based on your past experience.
Guest
Join Date: Feb 2016
Posts: 414
Hi - yes the what REALLY happens when I drink Tapes! My own tape with video goes like this: showed up at a job I loved drunk - taken to the hospital. Lost job. A few days later, laying outside my car, drunkenly trying to get up with the help of two officers. #2 DUI. real fun stuff....
Member
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Ohio
Posts: 420
Shelby - it is just in your head - it's when you are thinking of just having 1 drink, or a couple, or whatever - "playing the tape" in your head means imagining what will happen after that - for the rest of the night - 1 drink turns to 12, drunk calling someone, embarrassing yourself, getting arrested for a dui - whatever bad stuff it has resulted for you in the past. Make sense?
Currently Active Users Viewing this Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
