My Stop Drinking Story: How to End the Cycle of Booze
Alcoholism is rampant in the world. It can be demoralizing and very destructive. Here’s my tips to stop drinking and end the cycle of booze.
“Walk a crooked mile, it will take away your smile. . .” from the band TAD
Are you ensnarled in a cycle of drinking?
I was also.
I tried quitting a million times.
I won’t bore you with how bad I was, you can watch the video below for that.
What I do want to talk about is why we drink so heavily.
When I first took a drink, the alcohol coursed through my veins like a magic potion.
I felt so alive, immortal, and endlessly confident.
I felt witty, smarter, and more energetic.
Alcohol affected me differently, like speed.
I would get so manic from alcohol that I would stay up all night doing strange things, like talking to cats.
But, eventually my love affair with alcohol turned into a hate situation.
Again, I won’t bore you with the destruction. Everyone who drinks a lot has a long list of things they did to self-destruct.
I don’t care if you can drink two 18 packs in one sitting, or you killed your mom.
The point is: we are drinking heavily because we are running from trauma.
We don’t love ourselves, therefore we can’t love others, which alienates us.
It doesn’t even matter if it’s alcohol.
We can try to escape with any addiction or bad habit.
We are hooked on Dopamine because it makes us feel good.
If we naturally felt good we wouldn’t crave Dopamine so badly.
That’s why we love distractions, like TV, movies, and gossip.
It distracts us from US.
Here’s my candid video:
So, How Do We End the Cycle of Distraction, Destruction, and the Drink?
If you’re in a small town and surrounded by bad influences, I suggest moving or completely cutting yourself off from drinking buddies.
Luckily, for me, I had already burned all my friendships, so all I did was get a second job and worked my butt off and went straight home after work.
That kept me safe for two years, but I was still lonely.
Believe it or not, I went and bought a pink turtle named Kirby to help my loneliness. (No, not a real pink turtle.)
Then I started going to the gym and cut out sugar.
Alcoholics love sugar because alcohol is mostly sugar. We are very sensitive to it.
Working out gives you the good chemicals in your brain that addicts crave, but unlike drugs and alcohol, these chemicals raise healthy levels in your brain instead of depleting them like drugs and alcohol.
I loved going into the sauna after a workout. It was so relaxing and felt like a natural Valium type of high.
This song explains my time drinking through the era of music I grew up with:
“Walk a crooked mile, it will take away your smile. . .”
“Walk a crooked mile, it will take away your smile. . .”
“Walk a crooked mile, it will take away your smile. . .”
Not the greatest song to be inspired and uplifted by, but these are the kind of influences I tended to be attracted to.
I thought it was cool to be destructive.
Even the writers that I read, like Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac, loved alcohol and glorified it.
I gravitated to this crap because I wanted to look at my destruction in a romantic way.
Now, destruction to me is worthless, ugly, and weak.
There’s nothing courageous or strong with someone who lies, cheats, and steals from this precious life.
We are all here to master ourselves and to love one another.
Of course there’s evil in the world, but we don’t have to fling shit with them.
Take the high road. . .
Go ahead and use your destructive experiences to help others.
The more you help others, the more you will rebuild your self-esteem and love yourself again.
That’s why charity work is so powerful.
I was a true selfish, narcissist when I drank and drugged.
I helped no one and gave nothing, which subconsciously took down my self-worth even more.
Those guys that made selfish and destructive look cool a few years ago are paying for it or are dead by now.
It’s time to love again, even if it was taken away from you when you were just an innocent child.
It’s never your fault that you were abused, but it would be your fault if you killed yourself because of it.
There’s a smoldering love inside of you.
You lash out because you are scared and hurt, but let go of the past.
Learn to love yourself again.
Look deep inside with meditation. . .
Go help out at a charity. . .
Say thank you to everybody for no reason.
The fact that you’re still here means that you are valuable to someone.
Go help them and be saved yourself with sobriety. Beat the booze!
