In one of my previous posts I mentioned that I’d come back to 16th November 2013 and as today happens to be the 2-year anniversary, I thought now might be about the right time.
I’d like to take a short sidebar and say that I might be talking about some topics you may wish to know more about, particularly alcohol and the not-responsible use of it. If you think you might need more information about this, please reach out to someone. These organisations can help:
Now back to our scheduled programming…
First up, I’d like to talk about what it feels like to be addicted to alcohol. Ask yourself some questions:
I’ve been in a place where the answers to all of those questions is yes. That’s really not a good place to be in, but it’s not something you should be ashamed of or hide.
You’ll be getting the idea by now that I think alcohol is evil. That’s not true. I absolutely love alcohol and I realise that in moderation, like many bad things, it’s fine and fun. The occasional drink or drinking session is absolutely fine, the trick is to work out when you are relying on alcohol, as that’s when the problems begin.
Absolutely the best way of managing an over-reliance on alcohol is abstinence. That’s a fact, not some preachy rubbish from a teetotaler. If you have a problem with drinking, the single most effective method of controlling alcoholism is total abstinence. It’s effective (it’s actually what AA recommends) and there is good evidence that it has a lower rate of recidivism than other options when combined with other recommended actions (in the case of AA, that means regular meeting attendance)
Unfortunately abstinence not going to be a workable option for everyone.