I Can't Have Fun Without Drinking
May 26, 2020
If you think you can’t have fun without drinking.
You are right.
I couldn’t either.
That is because as much as I hated to admit it, I had become dependent on alcohol.
I needed alcohol for a good time.
So much that I didn’t feel good without it.
As a daily drinker, I would wake up with a hangover.
The only way for me for me to feel better was to address the withdrawal my body was experiencing.
Alcohol directly influenced the chemical activity in my brain which caused issues like depression and anxiety to exacerbate.
It disrupted my sleep and contributed to negative thoughts and moodiness.
This is not fun by anyone’s standards!
The easiest way to stop feeling this way is to have another drink.
This took the edge of my body’s withdrawal, and I immediately felt better.
This detox retox cycle is the alcohol trap.
Not unlike the sweet nectar of a pitcher plant that has insects drinking it while getting deeper and deeper in until they cannot get out.
Even with the dead insects at the bottom, the insects believe they are different.
They can taste the sweet nectar and escape.
They keep enjoying the nectar until they, too, are trapped.
I know alcohol is a drug that hurts people.
I have watched it ruin lives of people around me.
I know 88,0000 people die from alcohol each year and it is the third preventable cause of death. I know how awful I feel when I’ve over indulged in the sweet nectar of wine, which is also poison.
Yet, I somehow still believed drinking was fun and I couldn’t wait to do it again.
Over time, I was the insect stuck in the pitcher plant getting more and more anxious and depressed. I needed the exact thing that was sinking me deeper and deeper.
Quitting drinking was not fun.
I did not look forward to it.
I was not excited to stop taking the easy way out of my cravings.
Learning new coping skills was hard work.
I avoided triggers which was my social life for a period of time.
It was not fun.
Life was boring.
This however, was only temporary.
Now that I am out of the vino fly trap, I am having more fun than I ever did drinking.
This is because I don’t have to wait until happy hour to have fun.
I don’t need a drink for a good time.
I am not dependent on a substance to change my mood.
I wake up in a good mood.
I can have a good time at any hour of the day.
I can have fun without a drink in my hand.
I no longer experience crushing depression or anxiety.
I am well rested.
I am healthy.
The feel good chemicals in my brain are always on.
The freedom I have found in living an alcohol free lifestyle has been more fun than drinking ever was.
If you are in the drinking loop, the first few weeks off are not fun.
It takes incredible effort, but the reward is worth it.
Keep your end goal in mind.
The discomfort of not drinking gets easier over time.
I don’t even consider a drink anymore.
I give my permission to have a good time whenever I want.
I don’t depend on a substance to do it for me.
I am never waiting for a good time.
You can’t have fun without drinking, until you have more fun than you ever did drinking!
