- Accept the fact that your reaction to alcohol makes your life unmanageable.
- Realize that to make your life manageable, you must stop drinking completely.
- Understand that your alcoholism is a disease that affects everyone around you.
- Accept the fact that you can never be a social drinker again.
- If what you have is not what you want… recognize that alcohol will not help you get it.
- Recognize that not drinking is your responsibility and no one else’s.
- Admit that for you, alcohol results in nothing but unhappiness.
- Realize that it doesn’t matter why you are an alcoholic. The fact is you are. Start from there.
- Be honest… with yourself and with others.
- Identify thinking patterns that lead to drinking. (Stinking thinking)
- Accept the fact that life includes boredom, pain and depression, and that alcohol doesn’t erase any of them.
- Concede that alcohol doesn’t make you witty or intelligent.
- Be tolerant of other’s mistake and ignorance.
- Learn to deal with both success and failure without drinking.
- Identify life changes and periods of disorganization as potentially threatening situations.
- When responding to situations, try to be controlled by good judgment rather than emotion.
- Recognize that by not drinking, you are neither a hero nor a martyr.
- Slow down and concentrate on the present rather than the past or the future.
- Keep yourself in good physical shape.
- Develop positive life management skills. (Do things because they help you move in a positive direction rather than because you have to or are forced to.)
- Work at maintain your sobriety. If you don’t, it won’t.
- Recognize feelings of discouragement and discontent, and use them to spur you into action rather than allow them to pull you into depression.
- Keeps your guard up when you find yourself experiencing premature feelings of elation and victory.
- Strive for an increase in growth.
- Internalize the concept that abstinence allows success to occur. It doesn’t insure it.
- Be aware of the different being dry and being sober. Sobriety is a way of life, involving all of the above.
If, after reading this list, you find that you disagree with or refuse to follow the advice, put the whole thing away.
You probably aren’t ready to stop drinking yet.
