Three Lies That Postponed My Sobriety
I’d tell myself anything to justify my alcoholism.
I got sober in 2016, but only after wasting about a decade of my life with daily heavy drinking.
I actually realized that I had a drinking problem very early on, only a year or two after the daily drinking began. Unfortunately, I came up with all kinds of excuses to put off addressing my addiction.
Below are three lies that I told myself to justify my heavy drinking and postpone my sobriety:
“I’ll Cut Back”
Like so many alcoholics before me, I spent years trying to learn to drink in moderation. I knew that I was drinking too much, but the idea of eliminating alcohol from my life completely sounded far too extreme — unbearably so.
Instead, I came up with all kinds of compromises with myself:
- I’ll only drink on the weekends.
- I’ll only drink with friends.
- I won’t have more than 3 drinks per night.
I tried out every rule and restriction I could think of, but I was never able to actually stick with them.
The same thing would happen again and again: I’d go a few days or a couple of weeks following my self-imposed restrictions. Then, one…
