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How Stress Affects Me Before and After I Quit Drinking Alcohol

by | Stop Drinking Alcohol | 7 comments

Before I quit, I lived in a twilight zone where there is stress but drink becomes a very efficient way of temporarily alleviating that stress. Drink until blotto.

Then you don’t really think a lot about the stress.

But it’s not relieving anything, it’s only masking the problems.

The problems which are causing you to stress are still there, left undealt with.

The frame that your thinking is locked into never gets changed because you’re brain never gets the chance to think clearly.

When you’re focused on the next party, getting to the weekend or the evening when you can ‘relax’ – the mental drinking stage, then you have the physical stage where you’re actually doing the drinking, then the hangover.

Alcohol turns your brain to mush!

The influence of alcohol goes much deeper than the actual effect of the drug. Think of all the things you’re missing out on because of the drinking, because your brain is not working right.

That’s how I used to deal with stress… drink… it’s how I used to deal with a lot of problems. That’s why I never dealt with a lot of stuff.

I spoke about FOMO, the fear of missing out, as something which we all succumb to after we stop drinking. It’s bullshit! Missing out on what?

Eating food… stresses me out sometimes.

What do I feel when I’m stressed?

How am I able to deal with my stress better now that I don’t drink?

I suppose this is normal. No ups and downs. No rollercoaster. Better thinking.

I still get days, when for one reason or another, I get stressed or feel a bit low.

There are many different natural reasons for this. Something might happen which knocks me out of my comfort zone. Something someone said to me. Some food didn’t agree with me, although I get that less and less. I maybe didn’t get a good nights sleep. Something happened to someone else, someone I’m close to which causes a little stress.

My main goal for stress relief is…

to keep negative influences to a controllable minimum.

The rest I can deal with.

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” William James

Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!

The first three tutorials

7 Comments

  1. ron

    Hi Kev i find the Sun Salutation yoga is quite good ,got it off Youtube onwards and upwards m8

    Reply
  2. Dean

    My thoughts on stress:
    Avoiding and or denying the things that I needed to address, confront, fix, get done, lead to a lot of my stress, which in turn lead to my “go to” of a the easy, albeit, very short term stress outlet in alcohol consumption and the bad habit of a vicious downward cycle of not dealing with life on life’s terms, my human conditions, and doing 1st things 1st. When in a bad situation, instead of doing something to make the most of it, finding the bright side, I often reacted in a way that made it worse, leading to even more stress. Today, I do my best to take the time to pause (often with meditation), get myself calm, back in the moment, figure out what needs to be done and in a positive way, put that plan into action. I would define this as my “Emotional Intelligence” practice. It is a way of “Harnessing my Amygdala”.
    I no longer have to react with just the choices of, fight, flight, feast and fornicate!
    The use and abuse of alcohol stunted my growth and evolution.

    Reply
  3. Chris

    Hi Kevin its me Chris from Pennsylvania. I’m doing much better since I quit drinking last Friday. From a qt and a half a day to nothing was some toll on my mind and body. The cramping of the organs is the worst. The vomitiing and Shiites pasted rather quickly . I had a pint over a two day period to ease the suffering. Now I past that and haven’t had a drop. I’ve been drinking 100 oz of water a day to hydrate and actually road the bike in the gym 3.44 miles. Onwards and upwards, lad.

    Reply
    • Dave

      Chris
      Congrats on quitting drinking. I just started on my new journey without alcohol.
      May I ask you how long you drank for? (Years and months) And also the frequency?
      I read how you had withdrawls. I think that scares many drinkers. The thought of going thru that. I applaud you for overcoming. Thanks in advance!
      Dave

      Reply
      • chris

        Dave

        I drank alcoholicly since 1976. So thats 40 years except the time i spent in the clink. From 1999 to recently i been drinking a pint to a quart a day.sometimes more. It cost me my home my family my career the use of my legs…everything! Still wasnt enough to make me stop. I know its gonna kill me one day and i want to prevent that. After the prolonged spree the worst is the body cramps shakes mental confusion. I found that alcohol mastery is filling a void that aa could not fill for the last 10 years of trying it.i had a recent relapse and all the old horrors came back. It never gets better only worse. Once we alcoholics lose our legs we never grow new ones. Hope this was helpful. Today i have 3 days.?

        Reply
  4. Jim

    Hi Kev,

    excellent 27 minutes, and back to the “walking videos” , I really enjoy this. Just a comment on stress. I recommend the oldest book ever from “Dale Carnegie – How To Stop Worrying And Start Living”… it is really good , and has a lot of good ideas and eye openers (at least for me).
    I am following your blog for more than a year, I bought the SDA course, stopped 10 weeks ago drinking alcohol, and had the best 10 weeks for the last 20 years ! Thanks !

    What only bothers me is sometimes the feeling I have to justify to other people ( and sometimes even myself… ) that I am not drinking anymore.
    Funny how the brain works and how deep those habits and thoughts are hidden inside.

    — Jim
    “clean-strong-focused”

    Reply
  5. Hal

    Great video, really positive and thoughtful!

    Reply

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