Is Alcohol A Friend or Foe

What do you think about alcohol? Friend or foe?

Is it a harmless even healthy addition to a meal, it helps you to relax and socialise or is it addictive, deadly and more dangerous than crack cocaine?  For me it will always be the latter.

I've tried to make it a harmless addition to my life, allowing myself a glass of wine with a meal, a spritizer when I go out with friends but this only leads to problems. Once I allow alcohol back into my life it starts to take over, subtly at first until I find myself obsessing about when I am going to have my next drink, all the time persuading myself that things are ok because I am not actually getting drunk like I used to.  I become trapped, unable to enjoy anything because all I can think about is my next drink. 

When I realised this I saw that I had a choice. I could continue to try and fit alcohol into my life or see it for what is really is, a highly addictive substance that numbs me, makes me into a bitch and disconnects me from myself, everyone and everything that I love. After many attempts of trying to be "normal" I eventually chose freedom, to say goodbye to alcohol once and for all. 

Think about this for a moment, what if everything that you have been led to believe about alcohol was a lie, and that you have been fed this lie as a means of suppression to make you more compliant?  When a society is half asleep it is much easier to contol.  Alcohol is seen as glamourous, romantic, idealistic, it makes everything better, more fun, more intincing, more exciting. You become sexier, more attractive, more yourself. But what if this is bullshit? 

I believe alcohol drains the life force out of you.

I believe it dims your confidence and your self esteem because when you are drinking you aren't allowing yourself to be true, you are hiding from yourself. I felt brainwashed to try and fit alcohol into my life when in actual fact there was no place for it, whenever I turned on the radio there was someone talking about what alcoholic drink they had consumed or were going to consume. Films and TV depicted alcohol as wonderful and safe. 

This uninvited guest has slowly seeped into every single area of our lives. We can't get married without alcohol before the ceremony has even taken place, wine is now served at children's birthday parties, rugby matches, football matches, ballet, theatre, baby showers, barbeques, beach days, holidays, spa days, we even detox so that we can go ahead and retox. Our lives have become so difficult to manange that we need to search for escapism in alcohol whenever we can get it because we believe there is no alternative.

There is a solution. Get to know yourself without alcohol involved. This takes courage, you will be bombarded with a million reasons why you should drink and a small voice which whispers why you shouldn't. Listen to this little voice. Start to do yoga, meditation, find something that you enjoy and do it without alcohol. Take a break from it for at least 3 months and see how you feel. Alcohol doesn't have to be a part of your life if you don't want it to be. 

If you need help with this you know you can reach out to me.