3 ms·
You will save a ton of time, money, energy and productivity that you currently waste in going drinking and recovering from drinking. I mostly stopped, not part
by rdiddly 7y ago
You will save a ton of time, money, energy and productivity that you currently waste in going drinking and recovering from drinking.
I mostly stopped, not particularly by trying, but just by sort of growing out of the lifestyle and almost like, "forgetting" to drink, after a while. I'm big on the forgetting thing. When I failed to quit smoking dozens of times, it was by paying close attention to what day/time I was going to stop, how long it had been since then, etc. In other words, thinking a lot about smoking. The time when I finally succeeded, was the time when I just sort of forgot to smoke. Although note that there was undoubtedly an "infrastructure of forgetting" in place, without which it wouldn't have been possible to forget. For example the band I was in (with two smokers) broke up, so I stopped being reminded so often of smoking. So set yourself up for success by going through and trying to get rid of things that remind you of drinking. And don't make a big deal of it or count the days. Certainly "Only 5 days left until I can drink again" is a sign of failure, but in my opinion so is "Alcohol-free for 12 days! ... 13 days! ... 14 days!" Makes me thirsty just typing it! The biggest indicator of success in my book would be that the thought doesn't enter your head, and you're not paying any attention to it. Fill the extra time that you save, especially at first, with new or neglected activities that are more interesting & pleasant, yet not too demanding, so that you have better things to do and experience and think about.
- throw51319 7y agoSo true about "forgetting". I've also come to the same conclusion, in my experiences with other substances. If I simply forgot about it being something that I would do, it just seemed a lot easier. For instance, a nic vape, I would just put it in a drawer after the last coil finished... and within a day I forgot about taking hits in the morning or while on the computer.