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| Dealing with Drinking |
Alcoholism refers to problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages. Depending on the duration of the abuse, it generally results in harm to the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing. Doctors refer to it as a disease and psychologists use the terms "alcohol abuse" and "alcohol dependence."
Detoxification
This article cannot address the issue of detoxification. This will require competent professional help in either an outpatient or inpatient basis depending on the recommendation of the professional. Your need for detoxification will depend on how much and how long you've been drinking. Detoxification will not address the psychological issues of your drinking.
Psychological Withdrawal
This article will only speak to the psychological or emotional withdrawal from excessive drinking. Understand that even that may be beyond the scope of self-help; and again competent help may be needed.
In either case, you must want to break the habit. No amount of effort will succeed if you don't really want to break the habit of alcoholism.
Be assured, it is a habit; and that habit can be broken while at the same time you are creating a habit of not drinking.
It will be helpful for you to visualize both habits. Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On the left, list the negative aspects of your alcoholism. Be sure to include the health issues, the cost, the social issues and anything else you perceive as a negative.
On the right, list all the benefits of not being an alcoholic. Be generous to yourself. You're painting a word picture of life vastly different than you've been experiencing. This list lets you visualize your goal of being free of alcohol. This is your personal picture. Nobody can tell you what to put here.
Alcoholism is, in part, an emotional issue at least at the beginning. You drink to give yourself rewards. You drink to calm your nerves. You drink to stay busy. You drink to occupy your hands when you can't think of anything else to do. You drink to punish yourself. You drink because it gains you some attention. You drink because society may consider it "cool" in some cases.
Alcoholism is triggered by thoughts that are always harmful to you. If you give in to the thoughts, they will harm you. You need calming; you need to be rewarded; you need to do distract yourself. You need to punish yourself. Before your drinking becomes debilitating you need to do something about it. There is a direct link between alcoholism and crime, alcoholism and health issues, alcoholism and physical abuse - and any of those can kill you or someone else.
So agree with me that your alcoholism is triggered by thoughts. Check it out for yourself. What is the first thing you do before reaching for a drink? You THINK, "That looks good;" or "I need that." You do this time and again every day and it can be even worse at night!
So, when thoughts that are harmful because they lead to drinking pop into your mind, the answer is simple: DON'T think those thoughts!
The next time any thought regarding a drink pops into your mind, I want you to immediately say to yourself, out loud, "I'm not going to think about that." If it recurs, say it again. "I'm not going to think about that."
Your mind will insist on a drink - craving. Your response is "I refuse to think about that."
You may find yourself in situations where others are drinking. Your response is "I'm not going to think about that."
You'll discover that the craving will go away. It will go away every time you demand that it go away by saying, "I'm not going to think about that."
This solution to the psychological side of alcoholism is so simple that many people have trouble accepting it. The most effective way to handle the craving to drink is to say to yourself, out loud, "I will not think about that." Do it as often as necessary and do it out loud.
Someone said, "That's easier said than done."
Not really. You have the built-in authority to decide what you want to think about. If a thought or craving for alcohol is harmful to you, don't think that thought. It's your choice! As you make that choice again and again, your subconscious remembers how you like to respond and will start to make your response automatically. It's amazing how quickly this can happen.
Furthermore, you were made with a subconscious mind that has over time formed the opinion that you like drinking. Since it thinks you like drinking, it will try to provide you with all the thoughts it can to give you what it perceives you want - an excuse to drink.
The process of choosing not to dwell on those thoughts will, over time, convince your subconscious that you do not really like drinking. It's this process that creates the habit of peace and breaks the emotional habit of alcoholism.
Keep in mind that it's not the thought that pops up that is the problem; it's the dwelling on the thought that gives it power over you. So don't dwell on thoughts about drinking.
At some point, you won't even realize you are thinking about drinking because your subconscious is automatically responding to the thoughts before they become conscious thoughts.
The physical withdrawal symptoms and their length will vary primarily depending on how long and how much you've been drinking. They could range from being similar to a bad cold or the flu to being life-threatening depending on the depth of your addiction. In the latter case, you'll want to find a competent person to help you through the withdrawal.
The symptoms won't be as serious unless you allow yourself to dwell on them. When you begin to think "Woe is me" and have a pity party for yourself, simply say to yourself, out loud, "I choose not to think about that."
As a bonus, allow yourself to be a little proud of yourself every time you take command of your desire to drink.
Nothing could be more effective than having your subconscious mind handle your emotional desire to drink for you before you even think about it.
Resources you can use
Help someone you love deal with alcoholism simply and effectively. Take 3 minutes to learn more at http://findingpersonalpeace.com/s033.
You can use this idea for just about any negative emotion or habit that bothers you including your alcoholism.
I hope Finding Personal Peace helps you with your alcoholism as much as it helped me with my anger.
Rod Peeks
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