How To Quit Drinking Alcohol
How to quit drinking alcohol, that the search I first used when I hit rock bottom with my drinking.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but my childhood was heavily tainted by alcohol from a very early age. I am in no doubt that it played a part in me eventually developing a problem with it.
During my twenties, I kept up with my friends in the drinking stakes. I was very sociable and would be the first to agree to a night in the pub. I drank faster and more than anyone else I knew. People considered me to be the life and soul of the party… a man who could handle his drink!
Proud Of My Drinking
I was proud of this reputation! Honestly, at this point in my life, it didn’t worry me in the slightest. Alcohol was not dominating my thinking; there was no difference between me and any other young man – drinking to have a good time.
“I didn’t want to stop drinking; My reputation for being a big man who could handle my drink was important to me.”
I am not sure at what point my drinking habit changed from ‘social pleasantry’ to being the primary focus of my day-to-day life. Such is the deceptive nature of this drug; it’s like quicksand.
In my early thirties, I started to question if my drinking was regular. Of course deep down inside I knew it wasn’t, but I was desperate to prove to myself that I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
I probably spent five years fighting to keep drinking; I just couldn’t see how life could be worth living without alcohol.
Out Of Control
I was so out of control I refused to go anywhere with my friends or family that prevented me from drinking. Even if I went to the movies, I would sneak a bottle of whiskey into the theatre with me so I could add it to the Coca-Cola I was going to sip all the way through the film.
Alcohol turned me into a bad father and a bad husband. I would refuse to go anywhere with the family unless I could be sure I could drink once I got there.
Eventually, my drinking started to affect my health, and at this point, I began to sit up and take notice that what I was doing wasn’t normal.
Scared About What Was Happening
What was happening was very scary, to say the least. I tried everything I could to wrestle control back from the drug.
I tried locking away my alcohol and giving the key to my wife. Going cold turkey was horrible, so was forcing myself to have painful dry months and I even bought dangerous prescription only medication online. I couldn’t afford inpatient rehab and absolutely nothing I could afford made the slightest bit of difference to my drinking.
Eventually, I reached rock bottom… this was my lowest point; I had tried everything, and yet I was drinking more than I ever had in my life. At this point, I still did not want to know how to quit drinking alcohol or even to cut back.
Alcohol was a treat that was making me miserable and ill.
Slowly Killing Myself
I was slowly killing myself, and I just couldn’t slow down. It was at that point that I decided I had to do something different or I was going to die and leave my children without a father.
I needed a paradigm shift of massive proportions; I had to see the situation from the outside looking in. When I first started to consider how to quit drinking alcohol I leaned on my former training in psychology. As an NLP Master Practitioner and master clinical hypnotist, and I started to see a pattern or a loop in what I was doing.
Once I identified the triggers that started me drinking and encouraged me to keep repeating the process it was as though a light bulb flickered into life in my mind.
Eureka Moment
It was a eureka moment where it suddenly became so clear to me that I hadn’t previously been able to stop drinking because I believed that alcohol was a benefit that I would be deprived of if I chose a life of abstinence.
I realized that as long as I believed alcohol to be a positive object in my life, there would be no way to give it up. So instead of treating the symptoms of alcohol addiction, I started to address the cause of it; my erroneous beliefs.
Attractively Packaged Poison
One day, I picked up a bottle of costly French wine, and I placed it on the desk in my office. I sat staring at it for over an hour and a thought popped into my head: ‘attractively packaged poison.’
That’s all it is, I thought. It doesn’t matter whether it is priceless French Bordeaux or cheap cider; the component part of the drink is always the same. All these designer alcohol brands are nothing more than poison hidden in a pretty bottle. They are marketed with billions of dollars to make us believe they are a benefit.
It’s all one big nasty lie.
That is the secret behind how to quit drinking alcohol, to see (and believe) it for what it really is.
Not A Treat
Alcohol is not a treat, a way to celebrate or a social pleasantry. It is nothing more than ‘attractively packaged poison.’ Once you get to the point where you can see the truth the rest of the journey becomes easy.
How can consuming a poison be any benefit? The answer of course is it can’t! The problem is most of the western world is trapped a the delusion. A narrative that if you remove the thing that is causing them misery and pain their life will somehow get worse.
Once you are outside looking in you can see the madness for what it indeed is… madness!
Ready to discover how to stop drinking with my help?
