Addiction
Managing Alcohol Addiction in a World of Temptation
by Aubrey Johnstone
It’s a rare occasion to go out with friends or co-workers and not have a drink, no matter what your upbringing, societal status or religious affiliation. Brunch on Sunday usually means mimosas. Happy hour after work usually means a couple of hours of drinking at the bar, talking about work and life. Meeting friends out for dinner means appetizers, an entree, and drinks until everyone needs to Uber home. While it is possible to refrain and have an iced tea or water while everyone around you enjoys their adult beverages, it is also quite the challenge, even if you have strategies and mechanisms in place to manage the temptation of just one… which turns into multiple drinks, which turns into a regretful many days to follow. Holidays, celebrations and events out bring more temptation. It’s everywhere.
If you are of the type to quit things cold turkey, use that ability to your disciplined advantage, and help others along the way. If you’re the type like most, and need help with accountability, structure, and someone to talk to when times are hard, going through alcohol treatment in a facility to get the proper care, attention and expertise take bravery, perseverance, dedication and grit. Simply having someone help hold you accountable to your goals can make a world of difference when the temptation is strong and gets to be too much. This is why programs like AA put sponsors into place, to give everyone someone to lean on when the world is too much, and an easy escape seems like the best option. (It’s not.) Though there are as many ways to escape and numb our feelings in life as we can imagine possible, facing them straight on, sober, is the real mark of strength and determination, and stoicism.
Sometimes, it might be best and easiest for your temptation if you refrain from going out where drinks are served and flowing wildly. If you’re feeling unsure, don’t put yourself into an unnecessarily precarious situation. If you’re feeling calm and confident and solid in yourself, test the waters gently and carefully. Whatever your temptation and situation, you know yourself best, and what you can and cannot handle from day to day.
About the Author
Aubrey Johnstone (pen name) is a freelance copywriter and blogger, she began her online writing back in college during a mandatory blogging class which turned her focus into merging her interest in health and wellness and online writing. Her main focus in the past few years has been family health and the relationship between parenting and childcare but often writes on lighter subjects like travel and fashion whenever she actually has a good idea for a blog post.
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