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Thinking About Drinking Alcohol and Our Alcoholic Society | SDA56

by | Stop Drinking Alcohol, Year Two | 17 comments

Stop Drinking Alcohol 56 – Thinking About Drinking (The Written Part)

How’s it going? My name is Kevin O’Hara for Alcohol Mastery. This is Stop Drinking Alcohol 56.

One of those Days

I feel great today. Yesterday I didn’t feel too hot. I felt tired – really tired. I just can’t explain it, I don’t know what happened and to be honest with you, I can’t be arsed even thinking about it – it’s just one of those things, one of those days.

I got myself a nice, thick jumper, my dressing gown, track suit bottoms, slippers, cranked the heater up to full blast and just basically sat on the sofa all day, reading and feeling a little bit sorry for myself.

Back to today now – I feel grand, as normal. I’m up for a walk and doing a video!

Tip: Trying Not to Think about Drinking

Okay. Last year, I did a video – it was, I think, the third week into it. Number 3 I think the tally was. Basically, the tip was to not try to not think about drinking. I just thought to expand a little bit more on that today and have a take into the look of it.

Before I talk, have a look at this clip from the old video. Speak to you in a minute.

“My tip of the week this week is not to not think about drinking, if you get what I mean. It’s when you’re trying not to think about something, your brain is actually thinking about it because it has to remember exactly what it is that you’re not supposed to be thinking about. Think about a dieter that has a bar of chocolate in the fride, and he keeps saying to himself, ‘I’m not gonna eat that bar of chocolate in the fridge, I’m not gonna eat that bar of chocolate in the fridge’. The brain does not hear that ‘not going to’ part – it only hears ‘eat the bar of chocolate in the fridge’. Think about if I said to you, ‘Don’t think about a pink elephant standing on its back legs wearing a tutu.’ How hard is that not to think about? You have to think about it in order to try and not to think about it.”

So, apart from the fact that you can’t not think about something, you just can’t get away from alcohol. I mean, it’s everywhere we live in an alcohol society. No matter where you go there’s gonna be references to alcohol, there’s gonna be people that are drinking, you see alcohol everywhere, and depending on your frame of mind, if you get it into your head that you want to drink….

Our Alcoholic Society

To know when situation if you want to drink, that’s what’s gonna happen. One of the things that you have to get your mind around is that from the moment you’re born until the moment you die, you live in an alcoholic society. These people stand up and announce to the world, ‘My name is Kevin, I’m an alcoholic,’ as if they are the person with the problem – they are the only person with the problem. It’s society that has got the problem.
Imagine it from another angle, if you went to a bed tonight, woke up in the morning and instead of alcohol on the shelves it was heroine or another drug, if there was different brands of heroine, there was different strengths, there was different makes, different types, there was white heroine and blue heroine, and brown and red, Highland heroine, heroine from the Blue Valley – of course they wouldn’t call it heroine, it would be some other fancy name, but basically the same thing.

Money Talks

How bizarre is that? That is exactly what is happening. It’s just we are conditioned to think about it in a different way. It makes the government a lot of money, makes the right people a lot of money. It creates a lot of happiness, alcohol does. A lot of happiness, a lot of wealth.

Just for the wrong people – or the right people, depending on who you are – for very few people…for the rest of us, it’s death and basically a miserable fucking life leading up to the death if you carry on with it.

We kid ourselves that we’re not drug users being peddled to by drug pushers, but switch out the drug let that and call it another drug – call it heroine – it’s the same thing, just packaged up different.

Anyway, I’m getting off the point.

Change is Everywhere and it is Inevitable

The point was that change is everywhere. We change all the time regardless of where we are in our lives, we move homes, we change jobs, we change relationships sometimes, and we always think back to a lot of the stuff we’ve done before, and a lot of the time it’s nostalgic.

We look back at the old places we used to live with a bit of nostalgia. The closer we are to the move, obviously the more you think about it and you have to adapt to all the different changes in your life.

It’s exactly the same thing when you quit drinking. It’s not all of a sudden you’re gonna stop thinking about it. You are going to think about it but don’t take that as a sign that you’re never gonna get rid of alcohol out of your life, it’s just changing the perspective. It’s looking at alcohol in a completely different way.

If you look at alcohol and you look at it from the perspective of you missing something, you’ve got these cravings in your body and whether you can live your life without it and you see alcohol as – like I used to see the pint of Guinness , or a beautiful bottle of red wine from the Noir Valley or Porto or Champagne or whatever it is that you look at…That’s what you see in your old life.

Getting Off the Poisonous Route

When you’re quitting alcohol, you need to look at it as the poison as it is. You need to draw back the curtains. You need to see alcohol as the poison that it is. You need to see it as the thing that is stopping you from moving forward in your life, that is robbing your life of your health, robbing your life of your passion, robbing your life of your dignity and self-respect, and all for the sake of putting money across the counter and giving it to a guy who is living a high life on your misery.

Achieving Your Life Without Poison

Ask yourself if you can live a healthy life if you’re drinking. If you’ve been doing the things that you wanna do in your life while you’re still drinking – if you can go to the places and see things, if you want to achieve the dreams that you want to achieve in your life while you’re drinking…and the answer is no. If you think you can, you’re deluding yourself, because the drink will take you further and further down the road of poison.

How Alcohol is Designed

It’s not designed to make you feel good. It’s not designed to give you a good life. It’s designed to get you hooked and to make you part with all your money. So really get your head around the fact that alcohol is a lethal, mass-manufactured poison that is killing you slowly. Nothing else. Once you get your head around that, then you can think about it as much as you want because you’ll never put another drop in your lips. I will never put another drop of alcohol across these lips.

Once you start with that one then it’s easy to start thinking about other things that are also poison in your life. I’m gonna be doing some more videos about alcoholic societies so alcohol (?) – watch out!

Alcohol Mastery Shorts

If you want to leave a comment go over to the website or leave a comment down below – it’s normal. I also start the Alcohol Mastery Shorts, so if you want to see some of them, there’s a new channel – I’ve put the link down below in the information box. You can see them anyway if you go over to the website, so they’d all be there. I’ll send the links out in the newsletter once a week. If you missed them you’ll get them in the newsletter.

The Shorts – the reason why I set up another channel was because I just think it’s a little bit of a light-hearted approach to more inspirational stuff and only short videos. I thought to keep it away, keep two things separate.

Until Next Time – Stay Tuned!

When you look back at once you’ve quit alcohol and you’re looking back in a years’ time or two years’ time and you really know that alcohol is in your past, then you’ll see it as one of the best decisions you’ve ever made, and you’ll look at it with joy in your heart. It’s a great occasion when you stop drinking, when you stop actually poisoning yourself and you see past that bullshit. I think that it’s not all doom and gloom, so hopefully I can add a bit of spirit into these little videos, a bit of light-heartedness, that’s the whole point of it.

I don’t really know what I’m doing with them, so you’ll have to bear with me as with a lot of stuff on the site. I’m sort of learning as we go along. But I hope you liked it.

I’m Kevin O’Hara for Alcohol Mastery.

Onwards and upwards.

Thanks for visiting the site.
Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!
Kev

Previous Posts That May Help You

Stop Drinking Alcohol Week 53
Stop Drinking Alcohol Week 54
Stop Drinking Alcohol Week 55

Outside Links

Alcohol Mastery TV on YouTube
Alcohol Mastery Shorts on YouTube
Alcohol Mastery on Facebook
Alcohol Mastery on Twitter

17 Comments

  1. JoDev59

    Hi Kevin, Please give those that are still drinking, an excellent reason to have their last DRUNK–we need some of your Inspiration asap-regards Jo:)

    Reply
    • Kevin O'Hara

      Yourself!

      Reply
      • JoDev59

        Well, TODAY is my ALCOHOL FREE Day 1.
        I have organized my day so that I am going to a function where there is no alcohol tonight, so that will keep both my mind & body occupied at the worst time of the day for me not to drink(7pm-on). I am going to drink plenty of water & eat nutritious food today & keep myself occupied. Also I will remove all signs of alcohol from my vision so that the thought does not even come up,because I have found that any visual clue such as even seeing a bottle of wine,or even someone else drinking,can start in me, onto the thought of just having a drink later.

        This is how I manage my first few days Alcohol free & then things get a lot easier from then on. I have found that IF anyone asks me if I am not drinking I say FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY,etc & this usually suffices as if I say something to the effect that its forever then they keep on talking about Alcohol which is what I do not want to be hearing right now. Once I am over the initial hump & do not even feel tempted(in a few weeks) THEN I do not even care what is said anymore.

        They say it takes 21 days to change a habit, so 21 days ALCOHOL FREE is my 1st goal. I will mark DAY 1 thru to Day 21 on my Calendar & EVERY hour that I am awake & not drinking for the next 21 days ,including today, I am going to put a 1$ coin into a MONEY SOCK with a smiley face on it. It is hanging on my door handle right now just waiting to gulp down some money. So now I am going to set my alarm every hour to start my savings up-I intend to do this for the next waking 21 days as a reward for my hard work at being ALCOHOL FREE. I have never done this $ collecting before but I think what the heck,it may just help my subconscious feel more rewarded & enjoy it more. I will feel justified to buy myself a treat at the end of 21 days as my reward!

        So now I have set an alarm for my next hour ALCOHOL FREE & will put my 1st dollar in right now. Now to remove anything visual about Alcohol & I am on my way -wish me luck- Jo:)

        Reply
        • Kevin O'Hara

          Go for it Jo, you don’t need luck, but good luck anyway. That image of the smiley faced money sock, hanging from your door, waiting to gobble the dollar coins… priceless… Gave me a big fat smiley face of my own!
          Keep us all posted how you’re getting along!
          Kev

          Reply
  2. mandy

    i love this site but today all i could think is you dont look well, maybe you need a bacon butty or two.xx

    Reply
    • Kevin O'Hara

      Lol. I’ve never felt better Mandy, that’s the main thing. My partner had a bacon butty the other day, the Dutch version, and I have to say it smelt delicious. But, I knowing what I know about the meat industry, I’ll pass!

      Reply
  3. Joyce

    Needed to hear this today & will watch again. I’ve been invited to a wedding of a lovely friend from my past heavy drinking days in NYC. Come the end of May I will be there with all the folks from my old local. Very excited about the wedding but they don’t know I’ve quit drinking and I’m starting to feel anxiety about the whole thing now. So many emotions about telling everyone I’m not drinking as drinkers feel uncomfortable around people who have quit (you know they do because it makes them question their drinking). I could say who cares, but I do. Silly, but I’ve even thought of avoiding all that by saying my stomach’s not right so I don’t feel like drinking. Why do I feel like I have to lie?

    Reply
    • JoDev59

      Joyce,

      I gave up successfully for 18 months a couple of years ago & at family functions,etc I did not say anything until someone asked me. I said,”yeah for the month of ——” & that made them all feel better & then they left me alone & never said another thing. I was not telling a lie but they did not feel threatened by my answer either- it worked every time & they then left me alone to drink my Bitter Lemon(Tonic Water & lemon Juice):) regards Jo.

      Reply
    • Kevin O'Hara

      Hey Joyce, If you start thinking about everyone else’s emotions and feelings you’ll spin yourself around in circles forever. Concentrate on yourself first and foremost. You’ll be an inspiration to everyone around you. The first step to coping on to the alcohol problem is awareness. That’s what we do everywhere we go, make people aware of our changes. We don’t have to ram it down peoples throats (well, I do because it’s my job, and I like it, hahahaha!!!), if we spark a tiny doubt in people’s minds about what they are doing to themselves… job done!
      I love a good wedding by the way! Can’t wait for my first one without the booze…
      Kev

      Reply
  4. Rob

    Day 19 for me!!! Thanks Kevin!!

    Reply
    • Kevin O'Hara

      Good for you Rob!

      Reply
  5. Joyce

    Thank you for ideas and support xx

    It will be in May, so, many months before I will be at the wedding. Hopefully I will more grounded to be myself. No matter what happens I’m so looking forward to being there, to watch my friend start a new chapter in her life & support the goodness of that. It will be my 1st sober wedding since I was about 8 years old xx

    Reply
  6. didi

    Hi Kevin,

    I totally agree, my (former) alcohol use was holding me back to achieve ANY Thing anymore in my life. Every day became a nightmare and hard to make it through. Thanks to you and your videos I nailed it, it made “click” with everything you said and it was actually very easy to stop. Every time I had a craving or felt discomfort, I recalled your words and the “light” went on again and I moved on. I basically had NO life anymore under the influence of daily alcohol, as it made me weak and sick, very slowly, which is soooo creepy. Than I drank and I felt better, pains disappeared, tiredness disappeared, mood lifted- just to experience the same the next day. Grrrrrr…… Horrible.
    However, I quite not agree with you when you talk about the horribleness of the alcohol. Since over 10.000 of years alcohohol is produced and consumed by all different cultures of the world and enjoyed very moderate, does not harm the body and mind at all. I do totally agree, it brings much more tragedy and illness than joy. But there are millions of people out there who enjoy a glass of good wine over a meal and don’t have a problem with alcohohol and I think it is ok as well.
    I was one of many who abused alcohol for various reasons and paid the price for it and it took a long time for me to stop drinking. It’s a vicious circle.
    Thank you Kevin for helping me all along.
    Bestest of wishes,
    Didi :-))

    Reply
    • Kevin O'Hara

      That’s the kind of story I love to hear. Fair play to you Didi.
      I’m trying hard not to make moral judgements about alcohol, the same as I try not to about other drugs. But it just seems to me that we live in a hypocritical society. On the one hand, we don’t tolerate drug use, drug users, drug dealers. We have them all tightly sown up in a big negative box. On the other hand, we lift alcohol up onto a pedestal. Without doubt, alcohol is one of the deadliest drugs out there. It is responsible for the premature deaths of one person every two minutes. The misery that this drug causes throughout the world is beyond any counting. The only people who are not deluded by this drug are the ones who are raking in the profits. I might be totally off mark here, but I truly believe that in this modern world of ours, we could find some better way of celebrating, or relaxing, or whatever than getting together in groups and poisoning ourselves.
      My life is about alcohol, only now its about getting people to change their perspective – only slightly – so they can see the truth behind this delusion… 🙂
      I’m so glad for you Didi. If you need anything give me a shout.
      All the best
      Kev

      Reply
  7. jonathon

    hello kevin I quit about when you did now 1yr 2mos got a dui and tryed to make best of it hate the mandated aa but am wundering about some sort of gatherig of people that understand ? also can get pretty lonely when yo do not have drunk doped friends casual sex too what you think group meets to talk or what ever I have no family girlfriend or sober friends whats a (girl) to do joathon

    Reply
    • Kevin O'Hara

      Hey Jonathon, this is the key to it for most people, the only social outlet is where there’s drink involved. It’s time to start exploring my friend. Think about what you want to do and do it. Find out what’s going on in your local area that you’d be interested in. Just get your foot onto the first rung so to speak. Do something out of character for you. Take an evening class and see where that leads. Small steps first, build on that!
      Hope that helps
      Kev

      Reply
  8. richard dempster

    Saw your videos today for the first time Kev. Good inspiration… Im nearly a week off the booze, after many years of caning it. Im looking at changing diet and liferstyle (which should be easy as Ive got a wife who is vegan!) My long-term goal is to be tee-total, just wondered if you stopped the drink without any stutters along the way?

    Cheers Rich,

    keep up the good work.

    Reply

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