Giving up alcohol is like giving up living but I can assure you, there is life after alcohol. The unhappiest person in the world is an alcoholic in denial about their chronic alcohol dependency. It is an obsession that by some miracle of control, he/she will be able to drink socially if only they had the grit and determination to stop at 2 drinks. They have a perpetual desire to enjoy life, still clutching a glass of booze, and cannot visualise life without alcohol. The ability to drink socially becomes an obsession and the most important thing in your life, without exception. You wake up thinking alcohol and go to bed in a sea of alcohol. You may believe your job or you family comes first but consider this: if you do not get sober and stay sober, chances are you won’t have a job, a family, your sanity or even your life. Once you reach your rock bottom and are convinced that everything in life depends on your sobriety, you have more of a chance of getting sober and staying sober. Alcoholics often come to me wanting to learn how to return to social drinking.  They want to learn how to cut down on their alcohol intake. They want to resume the life they had before their drinking took over their life. They are often functional alcoholics and, on the surface, appear to have everything in life, except peace of mind. They think binge drinking is normal and they can’t be an alcoholic because they don’t drink every day. An alcoholic can never return to social drinking. Until they have accepted the fact that their emotions are unmanageable, they will continue to drink. Functional alcoholics have a very hard time accepting the fact that they are alcoholic. They hate that word and would rather have some other disease that can be treated with a pill.  Alcoholics have to give in to win! Tips to consider when confronted with picking up a drink:
  • Remember your last drink.  Were you successful in stopping at just two drinks?
  • Your choice has a consequence. How badly do you want that drink?
  • Think how far you’ve come, whether it is 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months or 2 years.  How much self-respect will you throw away if you pick up a drink?
  • Minimise your situation. Think about someone who is blind or handicapped you might know and how happy that person would be if their problem could be solved by just NOT taking one drink today.  Think gratefully of how lucky you are to have so simple and small a problem.
  • Think about someone you might know who has died from cancer and the painful death they suffered. All you have to do to put your “cancer” into remission is not to pick up a drink, one day at a time.
  • Alcoholism is a disease of the emotions and a physical allergy to alcohol. What disease would you prefer to have? One that you can decide what your fate is today?  Or a disease that rules your life and you have no say whatsoever, in how you will live your day?
  • Would you swap places with someone right now, preparing to go on a dialysis machine for 8 hours to save their life? Think how glad they would be to swap places with you RIGHT NOW?
  • Cultivate and enjoy your day’s sobriety – don’t ruin it by picking up that first drink.
  • Remember, it’s the first drink that causes the compulsion to take another drink. It has a chain reaction. Ever tried to control diarrhoea?
  • Think about that drink you are about to take. It will be the single cause of all the misery, shame, guilt and despair you will endure for the rest of the day.
  • Taking that drink will be the only thing that can destroy your new-found happiness and take from you your self-respect and peace of mind, if you have been sober for the past 24 hours, 24 days, 24 weeks or 24 months – even 24 years.
  • The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Do you think picking up this drink will change your present situation?
  • Think about the 4 Stabilising Questions to ask yourself before you pick up that drink.
  1. Is this life threatening?
  2. What exactly am I troubled about? (Is it fact or fiction?)
  3. How important is it?  (Will it still bother me in 6 weeks’ time?)
  4. If it is important, what am I going to do about it?
To define, answer the first question.
  • Is it life threatening? What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.  It’s called emotional maturity. It it’s not life threatening – ask yourself the second question.
  • What exactly am I troubled about?  Is it fact or fiction?  Feelings are not facts!
  • How important is it?  Is it going to bother me in 6 weeks’ time? Half the time we won’t remember it next week!
  • If it is important, what am I going to do about it?  Don’t procrastinate. Talk to someone about the way you are processing your thoughts.  Don’t over react; don’t get too hungry, too angry, too lonely or too tired.  We don’t make good decisions when we ignore the HALT reminder.
  • Cultivate an attitude of gratitude that you have come so far. It takes guts to stop drinking and it takes a moment to throw it all away on a whim of self-pity, anger or resentment.
  • Develop an attitude of gratitude that you are only the victim of a disease called Alcoholism, and that you aren’t a degenerate, immoral weakling or the self-elected victim of a vice or a person of doubtful sanity or integrity.  You are not a bad person you are a sick person trying to get well.
  • There is life after alcohol. The problem you have right at this very moment will pass.  Just as every happy moment you have ever experienced has also passed.  We have to endure bad times to enjoy the good times.
  • Whenever you feel alone and that no one could possibly understand how you feel, think about the hundreds of thousands of other people, like yourself, who have taken back control of their life and are happy today.  All they had to do was not pick up a drink, one day at a time.
  • You don’t have to think in terms of “never drinking again” it’s only today you need to be concerned with. Anyone can stay sober, one day at a time. It’s when you reflect on past history or cast your thoughts into the future that you stuff up your present.
  • Be grateful that you have been given the gift of sobriety, just for today. Have gratitude that since others have stayed sober and are still sober, you can also enjoy a life without alcohol.  There will come the day that you will not want or miss the drink you are doing without today.
There are many resources available to the alcoholic to help him or her achieve a successful sobriety. We have seen many ladies over the years that are still sober today. How do we know?  They keep in touch with us on a regular basis. They have adhered to the program they were first introduced to when they commenced treatment. They also take their supplements, including Tyrosine Mood Food and L-Glutamine, to help balance their brain chemistry.  L-Glutamine supports efficient brain function and is the body’s most potent antioxidant and detoxifier. Tyrosine Mood Food is necessary for the manufacture of dopamine and noradrenaline, which are required for concentration, alertness, memory and a happy, stable mood. I also recommend Magnesium Ultra Potent to help them reduce stress and assist with a deep and restful sleep without having to use drugs or alcohol. LivaTone Plus supports phase 1 and phase 2 detoxification pathways, ensuring optimum detoxification of many toxic substances and also supports liver function and metabolism.   The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.