Tempted by Alcohol? Strategies to Avoid or Prevent Slips.

Different people have different recovery experiences. There is no question that some people have to white-knuckle it (fight temptation quite often) and some are less impacted by the messages to drink that surround us in every day life.

As a person in recovery, your survival depends on knowing which one you are, or rather, where you fall in the spectrum. If being around alcohol sets off alarms and makes you crave that drink, why put yourself is such a possible compromising situation?

Sometimes it just takes some time under the belt to be less influenced by the people around you, but others simply can’t tolerate exposure to alcohol. If you run toward that end of the spectrum (just the sight of it gets you thinking about drinking), you have a duty to yourself to avoid these situations.

Obviously there will be times you can’t avoid it - if you are in a position that requires you take out clients, for example, and those people drink, you can’t really choose to refuse the lunch or dinner. For those type of situations you can gird yourself - try to sandwich this type of event as closely as you can between meetings. Make sure someone is around during the event that you can call if you are struggling.

But most important - make sure you have a strong visual of what it will be like if you drink in front of these people - imagine the worst case scenario (vs. trying to convince yourself you can control it) should you drink - embarassing yourself and maybe even losing your job.

I’ve always found strong visualizations of me making a complete #*&&^ of myself is a powerful way to say “no thank you.”

But what about those times when someone keeps pushing booze on you? Be prepared for the obnoxious type who insists you drink. I remember once someone just would not give up on it. I finally blurted out - I’m not drinking because I’m an alcoholic! Boy did that shut them up. Obviously, you can’t do this in a work situation, but there are other ways to shut up booze-pushers.

1. I have an allergy to alcohol (feel free to expand on it - it makes me violently ill or the like)
2. I am taking a medication that is dangerous to mix with alcohol (it’s none of their business what the medication is)
3. I’m on a health kick right now and I’m watching sugar intake (don’t order the double chocolate fudge cake if you use this one)
4. A simple, I just don’t like it - it makes me feel sick - whatever

Remember, a person who truly pushes you to drink is all likelihood has their own problems when it comes to alcohol. They want you to drink so they feel better about it. You should feel a little sorry for them and maybe send a little prayer their way - that they will get on the path toward recovery too some day.