The thing is, it’s easy to go above moderate levels of drinking is a mainstay of your social life. After all, a serving of alcohol is a 12-ounce beer, 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of hard alcohol.1 Most people have more than that at happy hour or on the weekend. It’s so much better to go through life with a clear mind and to have intention with everything that you do, rather than floating through life at the mercy of other people’s wills.
And, you know, you talk about the idea of problem solving versus problem stalling. And I love that that alcohol was a problem staller, meaning your attention was momentarily diverted. But it didn’t do anything about the underlying problem. So I feel like that question helps you get to, you know, the clue to what is the underlying problem? how to take a break from drinking And, yeah, I mean, that that is it takes longer, right? The problem is like, pouring that glass of wine becomes a kind of stand in for like, okay, at least like, this is my kind of boundary of like, here’s me time for me, sometimes it has to do with work, sometimes it has to do with kids, sometimes it has to do with your body.
Set a quit date
Like, it really can be anything like, I’m always so fascinated, especially with, with alcohol, because it also it doesn’t just have like a standard effect on everyone. And so I will work with people who will say, You know what, like, it’s my way to relax. It’s my way to just be like a signal like the day is done. I don’t have to do my to do list anymore. And then I will work with people who will say like, no, no, this is how I push through my to do list. Like, I get home, I got to make dinner for the kids, I got to do all these things that I don’t want to do.
- And that glass of wine is the thing that helps me push through.
- Even if your relationship with drinking consists of occasional social drinking with friends or occasionally over-indulging in wine and cocktails during the holiday season, alcohol can still leave its mark.
- But it doesn’t make sense, if you’re not totally sure how to string it all together.
- Number one, you’re putting that out into the universe, and so there’s like this tractor field that brings the experiences that we think about, we tend to experience those in some form in our lives, usually not too long after we think about them.
- And a lot of times, people at first will be like, I’m, I don’t even know, I don’t even think there was an urge, it just happened, like, we’re so disconnected.
Phenibut is arguably as dangerous, but for whatever reason, I feel… I don’t think I would ever get to the point myself where I just casually took an Ativan. Phenibut, on the other side, maybe, but I don’t think I’ve had phenibut in like three years at this point. They were kind of like crutches, the kratom and the… Well, the propranolol, the kratom, and the phenibut were occasional crutches that I sometimes used before or during social events in very low dosages because I respected my brain and I don’t regret using them. Say, for instance, you’re going to give the speech, the best man speech at a wedding, but you’ve only been off alcohol for two weeks and you’re nervous. Well, maybe you have a doctor’s prescription for propanolol and you pop one of those before it’s time to get up there and give the speech. It’s probably going to block the norepinephrine from making you fearful, and all of a sudden, you’re calm.
What are the risks of alcohol as you get older?
So, that’s like the official marketing, and then also unofficial marketing where you’re watching a movie or a show, and in this particular movie or show, at a lot of points, they’re drinking alcohol. That’s free marketing for the companies. Now, when it comes to the official marketing, billboards and magazines and commercials, et cetera, if you think about one of those advertisements, one of those marketing pieces, it’s usually good looking people having fun without a care in the world in beautiful weather. So, it brings to mind just all this pleasure and joy and comradery. So, as you keep doing this and you keep going places, and as you become the person who’s not known as the hard-drinking person for whom it would be funny if they showed up without alcohol, and it just becomes automatic, and people stop asking.
It aids in digestion, stores minerals and vitamins, regulates blood clotting and eliminates waste. It also helps fight infection, eliminates bacteria from the blood and maintains hormone balance. Thanks for tuning into the Elevation Recovery podcast, your hub for addiction recovery strategies, hosted by Chris Scott and Matt Finch.
