There's More To Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking by Dr. Paul O.

[Rainyday]

There's More To Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking by Dr. Paul O.

My Alcoholic Brain

Thinking has always been a problem for me. If my only problem had been drinking, I could have handled it easily. If drinking is a problem, don?t drink. I knew that. But my common sense and good intentions dissolved when drinking and thinking joined forces against me.

My brain and my body have always been in conflict. My mind has always wanted things my body can?t provide. They never agreed on whether or not we could drink. My body told my brain ?Alcohol gives us high blood pressure, diabetes, a peptic ulcer and colitis. It sickens our liver and unpredictability switches our mind off and on for variable periods of time. It causes mental confusion amounting to a toxic psychosis. We almost always walk and talk funny when we drink. We simply do not handle alcohol well.?

After a moment oo two of thoughtful consideration, my brain responded with, ?Oh well, what the hell?? One little drink never hurt anybody.?

It?s not that I was weak-willed. It?s just that my mind has a mind of its own, and it changed its mind. Not having a drink was not longer important.

In addition, my mind habitually lied to me. One little drink was all it ever wanted. But soon after it got the first drink, it began to chant, ?Just one more.? Alcohol didn?t quench my mind?s thirst; it increased it. As a result, over and over again I found myself drinking more than I should have, even at times when I hadn?t intended to drink at all.

[Rainyday]

There's More To Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking by Dr. Paul O.

The Noise

From the book There's More To Quiting Drinking Than Quiting Drinking By Dr. Paul O.

Furthmore, while my computer gives off a rather pleasant, mild, steady hum, my brain commonly puts out ceaseless chatter of varying intensity. Before I realize what was going on, this drove me to drink.

In sobriety I?ve come to realize that my mind talks to me. It talks all the time, day and night, it doesn?t do any physical work, it just talks. Talk, talk, talk, talk. And by its talking , it controls my thinking, my feelings, my actions ? my life.

In years past, I tried to control the talking with chemicals. Today I avoid all mind-altering substances. Even a mild drug like caffeine stimulates the talk to talktalktalktalk, and at bedtime when my body wants to go to sleep, my mind insists, ?No, let?s lie here and talk awhile. After I get to sleep, around 3:00am it sometimes shouts, ?Hey, wake up! We?ve had an emergency meeting up here and we need to talk to you. You know that situation you handled so well today? Well, it wasn?t like that at all! People are really upset with you Wait till morning. You?ll find out!?

I decide not to listen to such nonsense. I roll over and go back to sleep. Just as I?m about to lose consciousness, I think, ?Boy, I?m sure glad I?m not thinking about that anymore.? But my mind hears me thinking and calls out, ?Oh, I?m glad you?re still awake. You know, that?s not the only dumb things you?ve done. You did the same things about six months ago??.. In fact, you?re about the dumbest people we?ve ever met.?
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........my day is ruined even before it started. Evening meetings come too late in the day to take care of this problem. So I convinced my friends to help me start a meeting the first thing in the morning, seven days a week.

We call them ?Attitude Adjustment Meetings.? The format includes the statement ?This is not a meeting devoted so much toward reliving the past as toward developing the appropriate attitudes for living this particular day successfully.?

[Rainyday]

There's More To Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking by Dr. Paul O.

The Thinking Part of Alcoholism

When I first came to A.A., few things bothered me more than the way people kept talking about drinking. That?s all they talked about. I wanted to talk about problems; they wanted to talk about drinking.

Today, I see it their way. They were comparing their behavior while drinking to the behavior of society in general, but at that time my thinking kept me from hearing what they were saying. So I kept on drinking.

I couldn?t stop drinking until I first stopped thinking. I finally gave up my way of thinking about life and its problems, and, without waiting to evaluate their recommendations, I took the actions suggested by my sponsor and by those who got sober before me. This is "surrender?. Without it, alcoholics can?t recover.
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Some years ago, I treated a totally surrendered skid row alcoholic. In the detox unit after fifteen years of hard drinking, eh was entirely willing to do anything suggested in order to get well. However, a mere six days later, he stood in the hallway smoking cigarettes and swapping takes with two of his peers as several of us passed him on our way to the auditorium. I called out, ?Come on, Bill. It?s time for the A.A. meeting.? Without the slightest pause, he bellowed, ?Hell, I don?t need that crap!? Already he had disurrendered.? He had returned to relying on his alcoholic brain to keep him sober, the same brain that kept him drunk.

Alcoholics can?t survive without thinking. And they can?t survive if they continue their old way of thinking.

[independentjackson]

There's More To Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking by Dr. Paul O.

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[independentjackson]

There's More To Quitting Drinking Than Quitting Drinking by Dr. Paul O.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx