It doesn't take long, hanging around with people who have alcohol problems, to recognize that feeling truly awful goes hand in hand with drinking too much. Suicide is tragically common among alcoholics. As someone said here recently, and it's so true: my drinking caused my depression, and my depression caused my drinking. There are a lot of reasons, and sophisticated theories (biochemical, psychosocial, intrapsychic, etc.) about why this simple, and accurate, formula is true... but the reasons "why" do not necessarily provide a solution to the problem.
It's also clear (most of us who have more than a few weeks of freedom from alcohol in our lives have found it to be true) that, although not drinking certainly takes away much of the utter misery from our lives... by itself, it does not make life entirely wonderful. It takes more than not drinking to make a good, satisfying, and meaningful life. And if we do not take the extra steps necessary to get to a better way of living, we stay vulnerable to relapse, because our alcohol-prone minds will tell us: "Hey, this sobriety stuff isn't so great; why not just have a drink?" That's exactly what has happened in my own struggle, and more than once.
There's a relatively new field within academic, clinical, and social psychology called "Positive Psychology." Martin Seligman is one of the founders of this movement. Unlike clinical psychology, which has historically aimed to find the roots of and remedies for unhappiness and dysfunction, Positive Psychology aims to find the roots of happiness. And, in particular, there is an emphasis on solutions: what, specifically, can we do to make our lives happier and more meaningful?
I found a very nice website today called "The Happiness Project" that contains a lot of user-friendly information and links to other sources of info about how to create your own "happiness project," using some of the emerging scientific findings. Here's the link.
What might be your own path to happiness? And, for those of you who feel you have found a happier life, what has been most effective for you? This thread might be a good place to post success stories and strategies... And here comes another year, a perfect time to begin putting some new practices into place...
It's also clear (most of us who have more than a few weeks of freedom from alcohol in our lives have found it to be true) that, although not drinking certainly takes away much of the utter misery from our lives... by itself, it does not make life entirely wonderful. It takes more than not drinking to make a good, satisfying, and meaningful life. And if we do not take the extra steps necessary to get to a better way of living, we stay vulnerable to relapse, because our alcohol-prone minds will tell us: "Hey, this sobriety stuff isn't so great; why not just have a drink?" That's exactly what has happened in my own struggle, and more than once.
There's a relatively new field within academic, clinical, and social psychology called "Positive Psychology." Martin Seligman is one of the founders of this movement. Unlike clinical psychology, which has historically aimed to find the roots of and remedies for unhappiness and dysfunction, Positive Psychology aims to find the roots of happiness. And, in particular, there is an emphasis on solutions: what, specifically, can we do to make our lives happier and more meaningful?
I found a very nice website today called "The Happiness Project" that contains a lot of user-friendly information and links to other sources of info about how to create your own "happiness project," using some of the emerging scientific findings. Here's the link.
What might be your own path to happiness? And, for those of you who feel you have found a happier life, what has been most effective for you? This thread might be a good place to post success stories and strategies... And here comes another year, a perfect time to begin putting some new practices into place...
?We are one another's angels? 
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