Overcoming Alcohol Addiction

“Alcoholism” and “Alcoholic” are terms that have earned negative connotations, because it is assumed that people with alcohol related substance abuse problems are bad people or are weak. The truth of the matter is that people all over the world are suffering from alcoholism, and many of them are completely silent about it. They are not criminals, they are not bad people, and they simply struggle with something that leads them to use alcohol as a coping mechanism.

If you or someone that you know is struggling with alcoholism, you should abandon the notion that being an alcoholic makes you a bad person and start focusing on getting the help that is so desperately needed. Whether it is you that is struggling with alcoholism or someone close to you, it is your duty to look for help and support options out there that can be taken advantage of.

Is Alcohol Addiction Hard To Overcome?

Your mileage may vary, because every person and every addiction is completely unique. What you do need to know is that you are going to get everything out of your recovery that you put in. If you put the right attitude, the right energy and the right effort into overcoming your addiction, then the odds are good that you are going to have a much easier time overcoming the alcoholism than you expected.

Having the right attitude and surrounding yourself with the right care and support can go so far in helping you. Here is a look at some of the things that you should keep in mind, focus on and employ during the recovery process in order to make it easier for you to overcome your alcohol addiction.

Make sure that you continue to acknowledge the purpose behind your recovery by acknowledging the reasons why you abuse alcohol in the first place. Do you drink because you don’t want to deal with stress and anxiety? How can you deal with your stress and anxiety without turning to alcohol for help? Remind yourself as often as you possibly can that you are going through the recovery process so that you can learn how to deal with stress in healthy and manageable ways rather than repeatedly turning to alcohol for help. The truth is, after all, that alcohol only pushes away your problems, it does not solve them.

Make sure that you are thinking about things in a rational manner. Rather than denying that you have a problem, instead of brushing the problem off or trying to make excuses, you should try to look at your situation in an intellectual way. Your addiction to alcohol is unhealthy, and you need to find ways to overcome it at all costs. You cannot continue to struggle with an addiction when it is clearly causing you harm. You need to look at your current situation from a purely logical standpoint. If you are forced to drink a shot of vodka just to get through your day, then the odds are good you are an alcoholic and you need to find better ways to deal with your issues.

Use alternative skills for coping. When people have bad habits, they simply do not break them. Instead what we do is we replace our bad habits with better habits. The best way for you to overcome your issues with alcoholism is to find other ways that you can cope with what ails you. When you find new ways to deal with the problems that you are going through, and when you are able to avoid turning to alcohol for assistance, then that is when you can really and truly begin to overcome your problems with alcoholism. Some examples of alternative coping mechanisms that you can employ in order to replace the alcohol addiction include:

Identify the specific danger zones and risk points that you are going to need to watch out for. Danger zones can come in many different forms including specific times of the day where you are likely to want a drink, particular circumstances or even specific people that lead you to want to drink. When you identify what these possible triggers are, then you can go out of your way to foil them so that they cannot trigger you into drinking. For example, if you have specific friends that have a tendency to pressure you to drink, stop hanging out with them for a little while, or only hang out with them in places where you cannot drink. If you have the urge to take a drink every night at 9:00pm, then make sure that you are thoroughly distracted during this hour of the evening so that you do not fall prey to the urge. It is not necessary for you to be strong enough to overcome your addiction all the time, but if you know what moments you are at your weakest, then you can overcome those obstacles and move forward.

Go out of your way to make changes in your lifestyle. It is not always about will power, in a lot of ways it is about programming yourself. If you want to break through your addiction then you are going to need to set your life up so that you can achieve success. If you are trying to quit drinking, then you should keep alcohol out of your house. You should avoid going to places where you can get an alcoholic drink, and only focus on hanging out with friends who are sober. Small changes in your lifestyle, the development of new habits and changing the way you think about things can all add up to very big changes and a winning battle against your alcoholism.

Make sure that you are holding yourself accountable and that you have a support system in place. Being accountable to yourself and others means that you will get the kick in the butt that you need to keep yourself going on this journey toward sobriety. When things get tough and you are struggling to stay afloat, having a support system in place is going to be your saving grace. It will mean that you are surrounded by the people that care about you most, and those who absolutely refuse to let you fall. Having the right support system in place is going to mean that you can overcome your addiction to alcohol while surrounded by amazing, understanding people along the way.

How hard it is going to be for you to overcome your alcoholism problem is ultimately up to you to decide. Are you ready to take the necessary steps to overcome the addiction, promising to yourself and your loved ones that you are really, truly going to get the help that you need? You will get everything out of your recovery that you are willing to put in, so make sure that you are approaching your recovery from alcoholism with the right attitude and the right motivations so that you can really and truly overcome your alcohol addiction this time around. A little bit of motivation and a heartfelt promise will really go a long way.