When I have wanted to drink or use, I have been told by people wiser than me to “think through the drink”. They meant that I was supposed to think about what would happen if I ACTUALLY took that first drink. I created a simplified version of how this would go…for ME:
The bottom line FOR ME is that a drink isn’t going to make anything better – in the long run. Sure, it will give TEMPORARY relief. That is true. But, at this point in the game, drinking/using for me is like suicide. It would take something worth DYING over to get me to go back out. What would be worth dying for over?
What would be worth dying over?
Here’s the thing nobody wants to say: If I die while I’m drunk or high, I’m not going to give a fuck. I won’t feel it and I won’t care…because I’m numbed out.
So, why don’t we all just drink and/or drug to death?
Here’s the answer that you may not actually know yet, but some part of you is driving you toward: Because we BELIEVE that a miracle on this earth is possible for us. We BELIEVE that change can happen. We BELIEVE that there is something better waiting for us if we just stop living life with alcohol, drugs, sex, love, not enough food, too much food, too many video games, our phones in front of our faces all the time, etc. WE BELIEVE A GREAT LIFE IS WAITING FOR US ON THIS PLANET!
And that is true.
And that IS true.
So…
Don’t take the first drink, or drug, or bite, or phone call, or needle, or pill, or line, or whatever. PUT IT THE FUCK DOWN!
Then, get your ass out of wherever you are and walk away from there…actually, literally, physically WALK AWAY!
Then, walk TOWARD what you want. LITERALLY WALK! Is that to a recovery meeting? A sober friend? A church? A park? An ocean? A mountain? Go to the thing that will bring you PEACE, AND A DIFFERENT FEELING!
Then breathe in and out. And in and out. Repeat deeply over and over and over…until you can feel your feet on the ground in this new place, feeling this new feeling of PEACE.
And then you’ll know! You’ll know that you can do this new thing. This new thing called LIVING A GREAT LIFE ON THIS PLANET!
Repeat each one of those steps every time you are faced with the decision to drink and/or use. Then, repeat each one of those steps every day, even when you don’t want to drink and/or use. Then, teach someone who is struggling how to do each one of those steps when they want to drink and/or use.
It starts for every single one of us the same way. With one step…one decision…one moment.