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Alcohol Obsession/Culture

Old 10-23-2018, 03:42 PM
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Alcohol Obsession/Culture

Hey everybody,

Back at this again…I’m sure I’m late to the party with this, but I’m figuring out I’m not physically addicted to booze, I’m mentally addicted to it. The thinking about it constantly…I’m learning that the first drink is pretty much just to alleviate the obsession so I can think about something else, not because I really want it. I think that is the real relief associated with it. I completely agree that booze changes your brain chemistry and makes it focus on alcohol, but here’s the other thing: how often are we subjected to alcohol on a daily basis? Why do I think about it so much? Why can’t I just focus on the birds/trees/literally anything else?

So recently before I left for work one day, I took a notebook and every time I saw a reference to alcohol, I made a note. From driving down the road, to sitting in my office, to listening to music, there were 50 references in 9 hours. The first being at 8:50 in the morning, the last at 6:03pm simply because I stopped counting. Advertisements on trucks, buildings, references in songs, commercials, ads for bars, Facebook, Youtube ads….literally once every 10.8 minutes life tapped me on the shoulder and said “don’t forget about alcohol.” No wonder it is so difficult to stop obsessing over it, it’s inescapable in our society. Unavoidable. Pretty sobering considering how large of a component obsession is in addiction. I have come to the conclusion that in order to escape the prevalence of alcohol in society, it is imperative to believe more than anything in the world, that alcohol has no value whatsoever.

I just wanted to chime in…I appreciate everyone on here and pray blessings for you all.
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Old 10-23-2018, 03:46 PM
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Thank you for the blessings.

When I first got sober I noticed that a lot. Now a few years later I don't notice it as much...but I don't go on news sites or social media/facebook/twitter/instagram or buy magazines/newspapers or watch network TV. I suppose living in a large metro area the same could also apply for me, but truly I just don't notice it any more other than in the grocery store - and I just don't focus in on it there. I don't engage with it when I do see it. I do remember early days and the obsession.

It gets easier. Blessings back atcha.
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Old 10-23-2018, 04:08 PM
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I think that you notice the references to alcohol more when you're in early recovery. There will come a time when you no longer notice signs, commercials, etc. Yes, obsession pays a large part in alcoholism, but I think that the obsession loses strength as you move on in recovery.
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Old 10-23-2018, 06:06 PM
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That's one thing I learned early in recovery, they're not going to stop making alcohol. And I tried to drink it all.
With me it wasn't an obsession, but a conscience decision to get drunk.
Then it became an addiction. A physical addiction
I liked to get drunk at first. Then I had to get drunk. Advertising had little to do with it.
I wanted it, I chose to drink it. Then I lost control to stop drinking it.
I agree, there is a lot of promotion of alcohol in this society, but ninety percent of the people who drink it aren't alcoholics.
Demand drives market. And I've read the ten percent who are alcoholics drink the largest percentage of the booze. Makes sense.

No one ever forced a drink down my throat. Well once, but that's another story.
They are never going to stop making it. And they're never going to stop pushing their product.
I could go on. Like how they advertise malt liquor in poor neighborhoods and cater to the 'elite' drinker with the world's most interesting man drinks a certain brand of tequila.
It aint going away.
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Old 10-23-2018, 06:10 PM
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I was a little boy in the late 70s /early 80s. Early and often it was drummed into my head that men drink. The Duke boys would stop Boss Hogg's latest scheme and give the money to the orphanage, then head over to the Boar's nest for a beer. The football and baseball players in beer commercials. The young adults I looked up to. Most of them weren't bad or wrong or immoral, they just reacted to alcohol better than we do.

In those days my father would take us out to dinner every Friday night. Then he would head around the corner to play cards and oh boy could he put down alcohol. Driving wasn't an issue back then, or at least in most of his years. Never had a DWI. Never got abusive or anything like that and rarely drank any other time besides Friday.

Meanwhile my mom was stuck with me on Friday nights after dinner. I remember being like 7 or 8 years old. Sometimes she would unwind with a beer watching Dallas and Falcon Crest. I mean really, one beer, who does that? I would beg for a sip and remember at one point she is like you can have a shot glass of beer. I thought this was the greatest thing I would beg and plead for another. I probably would have out drank her at 7 years old if given the chance.


At least for me its difficult to unprogram that out of my head. That idea that I am suppose to have beer. Time is on our side in early sobriety. The obsession doesn't drop steadily. Its more like a stock graph. A stock that falls from 76 to 50 in 6 months doesn't just drop in even increments of 1 every week. It may drop from 76 to 73 and back to 74.5 and down to 71 and up to 74 and down to 68 and so forth. Sometimes the obsession gets a little worse but it trends downward over time. Even when I was over a year it never completely went away but so much easier to deal with once I had some time completely away from alcohol and it just wasn't in my routine.
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Old 10-23-2018, 08:55 PM
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Welcome.

At the end of the day, marketing and society and all that....aren't relevant to me because I just can't drink. The shrugging off approach to others' drinking habits, "funny" memes and gifts and mommy wine stuff, advertising, whatever, is easy with time, 99% of the time. The other 1% that kind of stuff makes me sad because you do indeed see glorification and excess all over the place.

I also learned in sobriety that TONS of people just don't drink. For a whole lot of reasons. My vision was so skewed when I was drinking that "everyone" did - turns out, that's happily not the case and I don't have to be around people who abuse it.
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Old 10-23-2018, 09:02 PM
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I noticed it a lot, early in recovery. After about a year I stopped noticing it. Now I hardly see it. I know it's there but I have no desire for it so it doesn't register with me.
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Old 10-23-2018, 09:49 PM
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Hi
I can relate.
one thing that really bothers me is the targeting of women with alcohol... I hate the whole "mommy needs her adult grape juice" or drinking martinis with business men makes you part of a "man's world." .I do notice this has increased...or I could be hyper aware ....but I absolutely detest it!


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Old 10-24-2018, 10:54 AM
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Thing is, speaking for myself, I'm literally surrounded by lots of other stuff (your birds and trees for a start off) and their proximity doesn't make me obsess about them.

Plus, plenty of folk manage not to obsess about alcohol and they're surrounded by the same things.

It comes down to the fact that I'm alcoholic, and if I didn't see a single ad in my first few months I'd still have obsessed over it. Thankfully working a solid program of recovery helped rid me if the obsession, and as long as I keep doing my simple daily maintainence work I believe i can keep it at bay.

BB
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Old 10-24-2018, 11:17 AM
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I found I was MUCH more sensitive to advertising prior to quitting, around the time I was noticing my drinking wasn't like 'normal' people any more. I'd have a rum and coke in my hand, see an advert (or people in a tv show or movie) happily people enjoying cocktails and I'd feel upset that I could only drink normally like that on some occasions, but on other occasions I didn't drink like a normal person.

I'm just short of 90 days sober now and the ads and people drinking on tv don't impact me like they did when I was worried about my drinking.
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Old 10-24-2018, 06:48 PM
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Hi gratefulday

We understand the difficulty...but support really helps

The good ...no the great - news is - we can get and stay sober, irrespective of billboards, ads, TV shows etc

D
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Old 10-24-2018, 07:09 PM
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Welcome grateful and SMD!

I sometimes notice the ads in magazines ( like Bimini I do not do TV and dont go on public social media very often ), and when I, I look for the lies that they promise in the ad. They are easy to spot

For me, looking at alcohol for what it is… A poison… Is very helpful. Just because it is legal doesn’t mean that it’s good for us .
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Old 10-25-2018, 05:25 AM
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Another thing that has helped my r-orientation are things like an Instagram group called @tellbetterstories. Their purpose is to raise awareness about the messages around alcohol that are everywhere. Not prohibition, or focused on us alcoholics, but on raising questions about drinking habits and use of that celebration mentality in advertising, etc. I look growing discussion about moderation and positivity around not drinking or not to excess for whatever reasons.
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