Playing the Tape Forward
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: New York, New York
Posts: 592
Playing the Tape Forward
Most of you know this technique to stop from taking that first drink - playing through slowly what you know will happen. Below are my top 5, in no particular order. Please add yours!
Drinking all day, every day
Red, puffy face
Isolation
Liver damage
Foggy head
Drinking all day, every day
Red, puffy face
Isolation
Liver damage
Foggy head
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Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 710
.. 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
...
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 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.
With the more sober time I had the easier this exercise was.
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.
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!"
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.
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