We are all led to believe that alcohol will do something for us and is beneficial. It will make us happy, sophisticated, more sociable, more relaxed. It will help us to enjoy an occasion and our lives more. The corollary of this is that we cannot enjoy our lives as much if we don’t drink – it will help us feel better ergo we must not feel at our best without it. If we do not drink we are ‘missing out’.
However, when we first drink we notice it tastes horrible. At this point, then, we cannot imagine how anyone would ever get addicted to alcohol. Who would be mad enough to drink so much of something that is not pleasant? Even though we will usually mix the bitter tasting liquid with something to mask the taste, it does not completely obliterate it.
Withdrawal
What happens next is that as the alcohol leaves our body, we suffer withdrawal effects. However, if we take another slug of alcohol it solves the problem and we feel better. We feel relaxed and positive again and we think this is due to the alcohol. We forget that it was the alcohol that made us feel bad so that we had to take more to feel better – we just know it makes us feel better.
Over time we need more and more alcohol to get the same effect. We recognise that it is hard to cut down or stop and when we are not drinking we are getting psychologically obsessive about alcohol. We start to get into a vicious circle of hangovers, our physical and mental health deteriorating, problems in our relationships, with our employers, with our finances….
Other stresses in our lives which are nothing to do with drinking but which we do not address or solve due to our drinking – causing further stress, more drinking, more craving, more obsessing with the next drink….. The time in between drinks becomes more and more difficult and we crave a drink. If we actually stop drinking for any sustained period we start to remember the good old drinking days and how lovely drinking was. We forget the bad side of drinking.
Problem with alcohol
Actually, a lot of the ‘good old drinking occasions’ were not that good because of the presence of alcohol. They were probably occasions which were pleasant in themselves, convivial occasions with friends and family. They probably would have been as enjoyable without alcohol.
In fact, hazarding a guess, the reason that drink was so important to us on those occasions was because it had started to become a problem – an integral part of being able to relax and enjoy ourselves. Yet this need not be so! We can enjoy ourselves without it. And without it, we will not also let ourselves down by saying too much, getting obnoxious, behaving in an embarrassing fashion, getting aggressive, violent, upsetting our families and friends, having a hangover etc.
Looked at like that, why would anyone want to drink?