This is a golden rule that all recovering alcoholics have to live by. It is a simple one. If we follow it we can never get drunk again.
However, although simple, many of us have in the past ignored it and made our lives very difficult. We have tried to prove we do not need to follow it. We have thought that we just need to get a grip on how many drinks we can safely drink without disgracing ourselves or upsetting other people and all will be well.
Perhaps in the past we were able just to have one or two drinks. However, as time went on, we had to have more and more to get the same effect – some of us lived our lives just about permanently under the influence of alcohol even though we were not obviously drunk – we were so called ‘top up’ drinkers. We needed that first drink of the day to stop the shakes or the dry mouth – we needed it just to feel normal. We recognised that we had a problem so we might have tried to cut down, to change what we drank – and we even tried to hide how much we drank.
Thinking About Alcohol All The Time
However, as our drinking and illness got worse, it got more and more difficult to hide what we were drinking. We might even have given up for periods of time. However, even if we knew we were better off in these periods of not drinking, we knew we would drink again. We were just waiting for the next real opportunity and were still thinking about alcohol (and the fact we weren’t drinking it) much of the time.
We might have ‘just one drink’ on occasions – especially following a period of abstinence. But if we did have just one drink, we fooled ourselves that it meant we could drink ‘normally’. The next time one turned into two – or three or four and in no time at all we were back to heavy and damaging drinking.
Cannot Have Just One Drink
So in the end, all of us recovering alcoholics have reached the same inescapable conclusion. We cannot have just one drink – and we now understand what is meant when we hear ‘it is the first drink that does the damage’. In the past if someone asked us which drink did the damage we would have spent a while calculating at what point we felt our drinking got out of control – was it the 10th, 15th or 20th drink? Now we know it is the first drink.
Some doctors will say there is a good medical reason why we have to avoid that first drink. It is like having an allergy to something which sets off a reaction. It triggers the need for more and more. If you had an allergy to peanuts or shellfish which was life threatening you would have no problem avoiding eating them. In fact you would go out of your way to avoid them as it could kill you to eat them. The same applies to alcoholics – not having a drink will not kill you but having one may.
It IS the first drink that does the damage. Avoid it at all costs!
The Haynes Clinic is an alcohol, gambling and drug rehab clinic which offers detox and counselling for people with addictions. It follows the Twelve Step Programme of recovery.
Call 01462 851414 for free and confidential advice.
