Playing the Tape Forward
 

"Drinking all day, every day" = addiction. It makes sense that you italicized it because its the one that's most important. It's the one that leads to everything else one might add to the list of consequences.

Drink= drunk.stupid. non functioning. Oh my . I like my sober list better😃

Drinking is not an option. Period.

.. Falling asleep knowing I failed.
Waking up full of regret, anxiety, possibly high blood pressure, promising myself never again.
Day Zero. I will not drink tonight.
Waking up full of regret, anxiety, possibly high blood pressure, promising myself never again
Day Zero. I will not drink tonight
Waking up full of regret, anxiety, possibly high blood pressure, promising myself never again
Day Zero. I will not drink tonight
...

My tape played forward results in a man who is ambivalent about sacrificing all that matters in his life, everything of value - his family, health, career, self-respect - for alcohol. It's a simple fact pattern. I never want again to be that man, half liter of cheap vodka in my lap on a work day morning, lying to my wife, lying to my coworkers, lying to my self...

I've tried this enough to see that it does not work for me. I can logically play the tape forward but when I'm getting a massive craving, somehow that is all overridden.

I had trouble visualizing the consequences because as a drinker my focus was on the immediate. It was all about getting that fix of alcohol....nothing else mattered.

With the more sober time I had the easier this exercise was.

Same here. One time I had a judge playing the tape for me, I was in front of him as a direct result of my drinking. He scared the cr@p out of me. It protected me for all of two minutes before I was in the bar and at it again.

When the obsession is on me, the very best and most logical reasons not to drink are easily pushed aside in favour of the insane idea that this time I will handle it better.

On that occasion I was arrested later that night and appeared in front of the same judge the next day. He locked me up.

Ouch. Yeah I hope one day it really will work for me.

And sorry to the OP, I probably should have created my own thread. I have no doubt this does work really well for others.

I play the tape every time the thought of alcohol enters my head, which it does, honestly, this early in my sober life.

I have to watch my mind like a hawk, and then treat it like a bully or a child throwing a tantrum, and then tell it, "Yea? You want to drink? Ok, let's get a bottle and see what happens, what happened last time." Then I visualize myself the last few times I drank, where I ended up, injuries, regret, isolation, wanting DEATH.

And then I come back, my True Self, and I say, "Yea...Nope!"

The only memories I have of drinking are bad ones. Feeling like death warmed over when I woke up in the morning. :( Hating myself with a passion. :( Any thinking of alcohol now goes straight to the negatives. I have no happy memories to tempt me into drinking again. I am content in my sobriety, and I was never content when I was drinking.