Th Problem With "Social" Drinking

How many times do we say, “I don’t drink much, just a glass of wine with my dinner and maybe a few extra over the weekend or when out with friends”?

Privately when you have thought about it you realise that 1 glass is half a bottle and actually its normally 2 glasses but somehow you have dismissed it in your mind! At the weekends you don’t drink much just 3 or 4 but again privately when you really think about it, it′s more like 5 or 6. You claim to not feel drunk but often you don’t remember going home (another private realisation).

You claim to not have a hangover the next day but you have that horrible stale taste in your mouth and you feel heavy and lethargic, that “activity” you were going to do today get’s put off. Privately you resolve to not drink the next week.

Monday arrives and you have had a rubbish day at work and need just 1 drink to “de-stress” or you have had a great day and feel that you can “reward” yourself with “just the one”. One a day is good for you anyway right? And for goodness sakes, do we not get to enjoy anything in life anymore?

Should we be concerned about how much we drink?

Drinking alcohol affects the mind and that is why you need to consider if it is a hindrance for you. If it does get out of control it can wreck your life, even to the point of death, and can also detrimentally affect the lives of those around you.

The answer from a professional point of view is to become aware of it. How much is it involved in your life?

I don’t just mean the drinking of it; I mean the thoughts and actions that go along with it and not whilst you are drinking but also leading up to it and the days following it.

For example, do you find yourself thinking about:

• What you would like to drink when you get home or get to your destination?
• Planning what you want to drink or what you need to eat so that you can drink?
• Thinking about what you can drink instead of alcohol?
• What the evening/day will be like without drinking? In the hope it will help you not drink.

Do you spend time thinking about how many you want to drink to avoid becoming “too drunk”? This is not you controlling the situation this is the alcohol controlling you. If you have to think about it, plan what you want/don’t want to do then it has become something that you feel is out of your control.

What if you having a good time didn’t include drinking?

• What could you think about if you weren’t thinking about what you were or were not going to drink today or over the weekend?
• How much more time would you have to do something positive and enjoyable with your life?
• How much more energy would you have to go out and do all the things you put off because you had a hangover?
• How much money would you save?

What other kind of life is out there without alcohol? Is there one?

Yes! There is life after alcohol!

Make the decision to accept that the alcohol is controlling you. Immediately it loses SOME power. Next become aware of the thoughts and write them down, get them out of your head.

THEN…

• Make the decision to change the thoughts start to imagine a life without alcohol or with very little.
• Imagine and begin to go out and discover more about what life has to offer without it, get involved in other interests that you have.
• Imagine what YOU can achieve without a hangover.
• Enjoy the enlightening journey of not having alcohol to more consistent feelings without alcohol and have the energy and desire to really “live the dream”, more importantly YOUR dream.

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