Do You Fear Your Drinking & Relationship with Alcohol has Become Questionable and Unhealthy?

If you question the amount you are drinking, feel guilty about your behavior, and paranoia when you sense others looking at you with a questioning glare, you could arrange to talk to someone confidentially.

Can you relate to all or some of the parts of this scenario?

Do the terms alcoholic, addiction, or the new less stigmatizing phrase-substance use disorder make you cringe? Is it because you can’t remember the last time you didn’t have a six-pack of beer during your 90 minute commute from Wall Street to your home?

After all, a six-pack is your reward for a hard day’s work.

Several months ago you started to sneak out of the office at lunch and get a drink or two to calm your nerves, help you relax, and work more efficiently.

Then you started adding a shot or two to your coffee on your ride into work. All the while, believing you were not harming anyone and getting your job done, so where is the harm in it?

You are not the kid sitting on the corner at 100 Broadway and Pine begging for money so he can support his heroin addiction.

However, some mornings, you didn’t feel much better than how that kid looked until you’ve had a shot or two to calm your nerves.

So you asked yourself what went wrong, why did you need a drink to maintain your nerves, how come you can no longer drink like the rest of your friends. You couldn’t even remember the last day you went without a drink. None of your friends or colleagues have confronted you about your drinking, so you believed that it couldn’t be a problem. Besides, you feel each of them drinks as much as you during the commute home, so you are not doing anything wrong.

Uncertainty about your relationship with alcohol begins to concern you.

Still, you are not sure about the amount you drink, so you secretly start a new routine. Your original method was to quit drinking every Sunday night, but each Monday morning came and went without you committing to your plan. Instead, you tapped into your flask for a quick eye-opener with your cappuccino at Grand Central Station before you boarded the Green Line to Wall Street.

You aren’t sure if you are an alcoholic. You don’t feel or look like one, but you are starting to believe that your drinking is getting out of control. Your alcohol consumption begins to have negative consequences in your personal life. Your wife is not happy about you coming home intoxicated every night, slurring your words, and how disconnected you’ve become from your family.
You explain your behavior away by blaming the stress and difficulty of your day at work. You convinced that its not the drinking its work.

However, deep down inside, you aren’t sure if even you believe this, but either way, you don’t have a plan to stop; instead, you have an idea to drink smarter. You start hiding your booze in the basement, drink less while on the train in front of others, and count the hours until you can be alone and safe with a drink.

As the night winds down, you keep looking at the clock waiting for the hour to strike when your wife and children retire to the warmth of their beds so that you can relax with your last few drinks of the night. As of late, you have been passing out in your favorite chair and sneaking up to bed at 3:00 AM.

You’ll quit drinking on your own.

Now you tell yourself that you have too much going on to take a break from this secret life. As the days and weeks loomed on, you started to question your beliefs about your relationship with alcohol, but you still hold onto the idea that you can change, will change, when you are ready.

You know your relationship with alcohol is not healthy. You are sure you can control it once you close this next deal, land that new client, and buy yourself some time to slow down your drinking and learn how to drink responsibly.

You got this. Once you put your mind to controlling your drinking, everything will reset itself to normalcy. All your efforts to slow down have failed. You took that vacation you planned for you to take a break from your drinking but convinced yourself you are on vacation and drank more. You can no longer sleep without alcohol, and you wake up with your head pounding and hands shaking. You know it is time to reach out to someone, but you don’t know whom to call.

You know you need support, but your ambivalence remains unchecked.

You don’t want to go to see a psychiatrist. You know you are not an alcoholic because you do not fit the description of an alcoholic society has conjured up. So you don’t need a drug treatment program. You are not insane and mentally healthy, so a psychiatrist is out of the question, You know all about 12-step fellowships and know its not the answer for you. You have to do this on your own, so you keep plugging away. Every day the nagging voice inside your head is craving for more alcohol, and each night, you give in and drink.

If much of this scenario hits close to home, don’t panic. The first thing you need to understand- you are not alone. Of course, you can reach out to any of the above options, but what if there were someone who could specifically relate to your situation?

You can call a recovery coach to help you determine how dangerous the extent of your drinking has begun. You and he can sit down and assess your situation and address your concerns about your relationship with alcohol and drugs.

There are many pathways to recovery, reach out to a recovery coach to determine a path that fits your personal needs, wants, and desires. One thing is sure to stop obsessing about drugs and alcohol; you will require a plan. Whatever pathway for recovery, you seek inpatient treatment, intensive outpatient, or sober living, a recovery coach will empower to follow the path you seel.

If you or a loved one seeks to speak with a recovery coach in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, The Lighthouse Sober Living Recovery 365 located in Fairfield County, Connecticut, looks forward to helping you get the answers you need. Call today for a no-fee assessment.