I wasn't a big drinker until...
Until Covid. Until kids. Until an executive level job. Until divorce. Until stress. Until.
Until.
UNTIL.
No one starts out as a "big drinker".
It creeps in gradually. You go from a few glasses at a celebration or on the weekend, to having a few glasses after a hard day. The hard days become more frequent, and you find yourself reaching for that glass of wine that you know will dull the edges, and make things a little softer. I get it.
You wake up one morning, bleary-eyed and fuzzy and you tell yourself, "ooook - not tonight". But by 4 pm, you find yourself justifying why you deserve just one glass - and before you know it, you've downed a whole bottle of wine. Process: Drink, Rinse, Repeat.
Newsflash: Alcohol is Addictive
It is absolutely doing its job. When you look at the science of it, alcohol alters the chemicals in your brain. It floods our brain with the feel-good chemicals, like dopamine, that keep us reaching for more. So why are we so surprised to find that we seem to have no control over our cravings at the end of the day?
Alcohol Affects Women Differently
Women's bodies absorb alcohol differently than men's. It takes women longer to metabolize it. A bottle of wine hits women differently than it hits men! The science backs it up. For years, women have been trying to match men, drink for drink, at work parties and events, but that has been to our detriment.
“First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.”
Your deeply ingrained unconscious beliefs affect your alcohol consumption.
You believe you need alcohol to be fun. To relax. To enjoy life. To grieve. To celebrate. To fit in. These beliefs have been taught your entire life! Remember seeing your parents drink at parties? You may not have realized it, but you were being slowly conditioned to believe that alcohol was fun... and special... and what grown-ups did!
To undo these deeply held beliefs, you have to really take the time, and the work, to examine Do you really need alcohol to have fun? Or is the people you are with? The laughs you have?
It sneaks up on you...
Alcohol abuse and addiction does not happen overnight. It slowly sneaks up on you - and it can sneak up on anyone, at any time. There has been a 41% increase in women's binge drinking since the pandemic hit. We were forced to go remote, raise kids, and homeschool kids, while doing our day-to-day job. Relationships were tested. Isolation happened. Many women went through a divorce, the death of loved ones, and despair, which led to drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
If this resonates with you - you are not alone.
I personally gave up the booze when I realized it was holding me back from being my best self. It wasn't easy, and the change doesn't happen overnight - but when you start to add up the days and realize that you feel better, sleep better, and are more productive - you start to realize how much it was holding you back.
I realized quickly, that by removing ONE thing from my life, I was adding so much more. I was adding more quality time with my kids, more productive time to my day, more clear ideas, more waking hours, more solid sleep, more opportunity...
What has it added for you?
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