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Thoughts About Alcohol After Two Years of Not Drinking – What Gives?

by | Stop Drinking Alcohol | 3 comments

Today, I got a comment on the YouTube channel and it was from a guy that’s been a long term commenter to the channel, and he said he’s getting thoughts about alcohol after 2 years of not drinking. Obviously he wants to know what’s going on.

I’ll read this out: I’ve been off the rotten stuff for a little over 2 years. Would agree that over time, the urge goes dim. I don’t think about it anymore, usually but once in a while, the thought comes into my mind, and not even in times of stress or triggering situations but like in a convenience store or supermarket, and the thought ops into my head from nowhere ‘hey, should I grab a cold one?’ Personally, I just do a mental eye roll and say to myself in full sarcasm mode ‘oh yeah that would be a great idea’, then shake my head, have a good laugh at myself and move on. So it’s not a daily struggle by any means. Life is now too good for that, but you have to put your guard up. Never get too cocky and never forget why you’re not drinking anymore. My two cents.

I’ve to say that I get it too.

It’s the same thing after 3 1/2 years, I still get that mental brain fart in the back recesses of my brain that says ‘wouldn’t a nice cold beer be really nice now?’

As you say, life is too good now.

Life is way too good to even think about those traps.

Memory is just a funny old thing.

The other day, I was thinking about an ex-girlfriend of mine, and it was something.

I was walking down the road, myself and my partner, and I don’t know what it was, perfume or the smell of a bakery, it was something that triggered a memory of an ex-girlfriend.

This was a girlfriend from years ago when I was a teenager.

That was over 30 years ago when I was in the flush of my youth.

It was someone I hadn’t thought about in a long time, and I didn’t even go out with the girl for long, I think it was a couple of months, and I got a really vivid impression in my mind.

It’s just the way memory works.

You could read all sorts of shit into that.

It’s the same as the bullshit about the brain when it’s asleep, when you’re drinking, and you wake up and read all sorts of crap into your dreams.

Fair enough, if you’re having a dream and I’ve been dreaming a lot about my dad lately, and I never really had lots of dreams about him but since he passed away, I’ve had a lot.

It doesn’t take much of a fucking intellect to figure out I’m dreaming about him because I miss him and because he’s died.

When you start getting into it and interpreting things ‘you’re psychologically damaged by it, you haven’t grieved’…who the fuck make up this stuff?

But, I’m saying I can hear a song on the radio, and it would take me back to my forestry days and I’ll see where I was in the forest listening to that song maybe for the first time or whatever it is.

I’m saying memory is a weird thing.

When you’re walking through a supermarket or in a restaurant and you might spot something that triggers that urge to have a drink, and it’s nothing more than a memory resurfacing, a feeling you have and something that made you feel good at the time.

It’s a natural sort of emotion to want to do that again, to want to replicate that emotion.

There are so many things that can trigger.

A thought can trigger another thought, the weather, a person, a telephone call.

There are so many different things that can trigger it and you can’t pinpoint it down to one trigger.

Maybe you can.

Maybe you smell something that reminds you of a certain something.

There’s nothing you can do about it.

If you start craving a beer, then sit down and think about it and go ‘well, realistically this is where I am now, and this is where I am because I’ve quit the alcohol and I don’t want to go back to where I was before’

Anyone who has got these things after a year or 2 years, 6 months, they understand it’s just a thought and they do the eye roll or they have a little laugh inside.

They’re positive about it.

That’s the key.

Be positive.

Don’t think about it like there’s something wrong with you.

It’s all part of the whole process.

Life is going to throw you these little curve balls every so often, and you just have to let them gently slide across your mind.

Acknowledge them and let them go.

Roll your eyes, be a bit sarcastic, whatever it takes, but get rid of it.

I hope you understand that.

I’m not talking about the commenter here.

He obviously knows what the hell is happening, but even if it’s a month or 3, these are only thoughts.

Don’t take any more notice of them than that.

You can’t help the thought coming in.

What you can help is what to do with the thought, and that’s basically it.

If you have any comments, leave them down below.

Come on over to the website and sign up to the newsletter.

Until next time, keep safe and keep the alcohol out of your mouths.

DON’T OVERTHINK THINGS.

Until next time…
Onwards and Upwards!

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3 Comments

  1. Ed Gala

    Probably been about two years not drinking for me also, though I’m not keeping track. All I do know is I am not drinking today, because I don’t drink. The trigger for me is when my wife is ordering wine at a restaurant and asks my advice on what to get. You see that was my job (I became way too good at it) and I am actually quite surprised how little she knows about wine. I have had to tell her she’s on her own in this regard. I’m not going to help or even make a suggestion and I don’t want to know what she ordered. When we are having dinner guests or a party I will not go to the store and buy any alcohol for it. Our wine refrigerator stays stocked with sparkling water. That’s my dinner treat now. Good luck all.

    Reply
  2. ron

    I gave up cigarettes and Pipe smoking when my first daughter was born in 1983 i still occasionally get a thought about trying a pipe again when i smell someone smoking a pipe but it soon passes when i remember the bitter taste after the tobacco had burnt down and also the awful smell of the cigarette Butt in the Ashtray a bit like the buzz of the first drink which doesnt last long . its only a memory which is bound to surface now and then

    Reply
  3. bon

    Being a recovering alcoholic, and (after a relapse) sober for 3.5 month now, I agree with Kevin. The last time I had some cravings was in a supermarket – if my memory serves. I used the same technique as Kevin – with a slight difference: instead of mental eye roll, I just warn myself like I was a naughty schoolboy, with some self irony. For the time being, it worked.
    I even have dreams of alcohol, but I guess it is also the part of the process and progress.

    Reply

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