Over the past few years I could no longer ignore how central Alcohol had become in My Life. I was forced to admit that alcohol had hijacked my life. I did not want to stop drinking though. What I wanted was to be a “normal drinker”. For me that meant a drinker with a shutoff valve. I drank for 50+ years and I never managed to develop a shut off valve. The truth is I didn’t try very hard either.
Years of daily drinking and never saying “No” to the next drink made alcohol the longest relationship in my life. I spent every day with a drink in my hand; I truly had a love/hate relationship with alcohol.
I began to think that alcohol was a thief. It robbed me of my joy and kept me feeling small and isolated and alone in my blame, shame and guilt. Alcohol stopped me from caring about anyone and anything else, except my next drink.
My daily drinking also taught me about the 3 M’s of alcohol consumption: Magic, Medicine and Misery…and it was the misery period that brought me to my knees… Shutting it all down seemed impossible, I had tried and failed too many times to keep track. And I got so discouraged because I just couldn’t break the cycle.
I consider myself to be smart, driven and in control in my life but for some reason alcohol is a strange exception. I am an avid problem solver. I love the chase and the final closing in on the solution. But I could not solve this problem. Time and again it eluded me.
What I didn’t know was that once I stopped trying to stop drinking I was freed up to explore my relationship with alcohol.
I read Annie Grace’s book This Naked Mind, and I found the first glimpse of hope that I could change my relationship with alcohol. For the first time I started to believe that what had happened to me was not my fault.
I read and accepted the science based facts about the true nature of alcohol and how it impacts all aspects of your life. I decided i didn’t want to even be a “normal drinker”. I really began to believe and feel that I was done with alcohol having any room in my life.
Now that I was not prepared for !
I am grateful that this Naked Mind helped me reset my relationship with alcohol on my terms. Let me help you do the same.
