Last episode of Stranger Things lead me to realisation
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Last episode of Stranger Things lead me to realisation
For those who didn’t watch Stranger things- here is a quick recap, for those who does watch it but didn’t see the last episode - look away now, spoiler alert:
a boy ventures in an unknown territory and is possessed by a shadow monster. At first the shadow monster manifests itself from inside the boy only from time to time, but gradually it totally takes over until only a shell of the boy left. The boys mother and his friends realise that in order to kill the monster they need to get it out of the boy first, otherwise the boy will die as well. They rationalise that the monster is a virus, which only occupies its host while the conditions are favourable, in this case “he likes it cold”, so they decide to “burn it out” by extremely heating the space where the boy is. It’s a struggle, but the plan works, the monster leaves and the boy barely, but survives.
Realisation: alcohol is my shadow monster. I have spent years unknowingly creating favourable conditions for it, constantly quenching it’s thirst with continuous supply of alcohol. To get rid of this ‘virus’ I need to create hostile conditions - I need to stop providing alcohol. I always identified the monsters need for alcohol as my need for alcohol, when in fact, I lived happily without it until getting ‘possessed’. So once the monster is out, I no longer need alcohol. And the only way to achieve it is not to drink.
a boy ventures in an unknown territory and is possessed by a shadow monster. At first the shadow monster manifests itself from inside the boy only from time to time, but gradually it totally takes over until only a shell of the boy left. The boys mother and his friends realise that in order to kill the monster they need to get it out of the boy first, otherwise the boy will die as well. They rationalise that the monster is a virus, which only occupies its host while the conditions are favourable, in this case “he likes it cold”, so they decide to “burn it out” by extremely heating the space where the boy is. It’s a struggle, but the plan works, the monster leaves and the boy barely, but survives.
Realisation: alcohol is my shadow monster. I have spent years unknowingly creating favourable conditions for it, constantly quenching it’s thirst with continuous supply of alcohol. To get rid of this ‘virus’ I need to create hostile conditions - I need to stop providing alcohol. I always identified the monsters need for alcohol as my need for alcohol, when in fact, I lived happily without it until getting ‘possessed’. So once the monster is out, I no longer need alcohol. And the only way to achieve it is not to drink.
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Originally Posted by joandmelandhan 
Ooh mako your post is literally screaming AVRT/rational recovery at me! Apologies if you're already applying this but if not wow! Get the book, check out the secular section here.......xxx
)Thank you for your reply. Yes I am familiar with the technique, and had successfully applied it when I stopped smoking more than 10 years ago. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked that well with alcohol. I think maybe partly because there are no benefits to smoking, there are no articles in papers like ‘one cigarette a day keeps doctors away’ but alcohol is still perceived as normal and even healthy when used in small doses, ‘a glass of red wine a day lowers risk of heart disease’ etc., so it’s harder to ‘demonise’ it. However watching those scenes on screen finally made absolute sense to me, even though it wasn’t even remotely alcohol related.
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Originally Posted by mako
Hi Jo, (& Mel, & Han )
Thank you for your reply. Yes I am familiar with the technique, and had successfully applied it when I stopped smoking more than 10 years ago. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked that well with alcohol. I think maybe partly because there are no benefits to smoking, there are no articles in papers like ‘one cigarette a day keeps doctors away’ but alcohol is still perceived as normal and even healthy when used in small doses, ‘a glass of red wine a day lowers risk of heart disease’ etc., so it’s harder to ‘demonise’ it. However watching those scenes on screen finally made absolute sense to me, even though it wasn’t even remotely alcohol related.
)Thank you for your reply. Yes I am familiar with the technique, and had successfully applied it when I stopped smoking more than 10 years ago. Unfortunately it hasn’t worked that well with alcohol. I think maybe partly because there are no benefits to smoking, there are no articles in papers like ‘one cigarette a day keeps doctors away’ but alcohol is still perceived as normal and even healthy when used in small doses, ‘a glass of red wine a day lowers risk of heart disease’ etc., so it’s harder to ‘demonise’ it. However watching those scenes on screen finally made absolute sense to me, even though it wasn’t even remotely alcohol related.
Oh and nice spot (Mel and Han are my girls - I wasn't too clever making up my in-cognito name was I?
)
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