My first go-through in rehab, we were taught something helpful. The HALT triggers for drinking. As in, take steps to make sure you don't get overly:
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired.
Hungry: When I drink, I tend to starve myself to a certain degree. I know if I eat, my cravings will diminish. I hate eating and drinking at the same time. I'd much rather just drink. So I'd rather eat nothing, preserve my alcohol-sensitive empty stomach, then allow my ever-stronger cravings to win out. It is so easy to short circuit this destructive mechanism. Eating regularly, even overeating, is an effective strategy to keep me sober. However, I manipulated this response for so long, I actively have to ask myself now: "Are you really craving a drink? Or are you just hungry?" Much more often the latter.
Angry: This is much trickier. I am not at all a violent person. I have never been in a fight in my life 37 year life. But I can go from calm to livid in a matter of seconds, and in this tiny timespan my decision making process vis a vis drinking can go from sound to off-the-charts crazy. My addiction knows this. So if something happens that makes me really angry, it tries to feed that anger, to get me more and more riled up, until I storm off and buy a bottle. I need to make a conscious effort, when I do get angry, to take a step back and let the full-body heat subside. Take a walk, hit the heavy bag, curse out loud. Recognize it, let it wash over me, let it pass. In the past, I would grab onto it and very pointedly see how angry I could get, because my addiction was in control, and my addiction knew if it could get me angry enough, it could get me to drink.
Lonely: This is one of the biggest reasons I'm here. I am not surrounded by people who understand alcoholism or who want to admit that I have a problem with it. It would be so much more convenient, so much easier, if I could just learn to drink moderately. This can be frustrating. Finding community here, a community full of people who know exactly how nonsensical, infuriating and difficult addiction can be, is important. I have good friends and I have a loving spouse, but sometimes I need people who can empathize with this specific part of my life.
Tired: This is sneaky. When I'm tired, I tend to be moody, irascible and generally disagreeable. Much, much easier for me to get angry when I'm tired, and anger is the king of all triggers for me. It helps immensely when I end my evenings early, shortly after dinner. I go upstairs, brush my teeth, lie in bed, read a book. Watch TV, whatever. Doing this seems to send a clear message to my brain and to my addiction: the day is over. It's too late to start drinking. We've already gotten ready for bed. This helps make evenings, a notoriously difficult part of the day for alcoholics, the easiest part of my day.
Day 5, over and out. Here's to your eating, relaxing, socializing and resting well this weekend.
Hungry
Angry
Lonely
Tired.
Hungry: When I drink, I tend to starve myself to a certain degree. I know if I eat, my cravings will diminish. I hate eating and drinking at the same time. I'd much rather just drink. So I'd rather eat nothing, preserve my alcohol-sensitive empty stomach, then allow my ever-stronger cravings to win out. It is so easy to short circuit this destructive mechanism. Eating regularly, even overeating, is an effective strategy to keep me sober. However, I manipulated this response for so long, I actively have to ask myself now: "Are you really craving a drink? Or are you just hungry?" Much more often the latter.
Angry: This is much trickier. I am not at all a violent person. I have never been in a fight in my life 37 year life. But I can go from calm to livid in a matter of seconds, and in this tiny timespan my decision making process vis a vis drinking can go from sound to off-the-charts crazy. My addiction knows this. So if something happens that makes me really angry, it tries to feed that anger, to get me more and more riled up, until I storm off and buy a bottle. I need to make a conscious effort, when I do get angry, to take a step back and let the full-body heat subside. Take a walk, hit the heavy bag, curse out loud. Recognize it, let it wash over me, let it pass. In the past, I would grab onto it and very pointedly see how angry I could get, because my addiction was in control, and my addiction knew if it could get me angry enough, it could get me to drink.
Lonely: This is one of the biggest reasons I'm here. I am not surrounded by people who understand alcoholism or who want to admit that I have a problem with it. It would be so much more convenient, so much easier, if I could just learn to drink moderately. This can be frustrating. Finding community here, a community full of people who know exactly how nonsensical, infuriating and difficult addiction can be, is important. I have good friends and I have a loving spouse, but sometimes I need people who can empathize with this specific part of my life.
Tired: This is sneaky. When I'm tired, I tend to be moody, irascible and generally disagreeable. Much, much easier for me to get angry when I'm tired, and anger is the king of all triggers for me. It helps immensely when I end my evenings early, shortly after dinner. I go upstairs, brush my teeth, lie in bed, read a book. Watch TV, whatever. Doing this seems to send a clear message to my brain and to my addiction: the day is over. It's too late to start drinking. We've already gotten ready for bed. This helps make evenings, a notoriously difficult part of the day for alcoholics, the easiest part of my day.
Day 5, over and out. Here's to your eating, relaxing, socializing and resting well this weekend.
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