When To Mind Your Own Business
And when to intervene.
This essay originally appeared in the Exploring Sobriety newsletter.
I have a friend who doesn’t drink much.
Like me, this man used to drink far too much alcohol. Like me, he realized that the alcohol was harming his life. Like me, he decided to make a change.
However, this is where our similarities end. I overcame my drinking problem by getting sober — removing alcohol, and all other recreational drugs, from my life.
My friend, on the other hand, simply cut way back on how much he drank.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter or my blog for long, you already know that I’m not a big fan of “cutting back” on drinking. I spent years futilely attempting to reduce the amount I drank without giving up alcohol altogether. It never worked.
For alcoholics like myself, “cutting back” just isn’t possible. No matter how hard I tried to limit my drinking, I couldn’t stick with it.
I’d set rules for myself like “only drinking on the weekends” or “only drinking with friends,” but I’d break the rules within a few days or weeks.
As soon as I let myself have even one drink, my self-control would go right out the window. No matter what kind of guidelines I thought I…
