[bluidkiti]

January 22

Quote of the Week

"If everything else fails, try not drinking."

I tried countless things to make my life better before recovery. There was the gym phase. My buddy and I joined a gym and vowed to get healthy. I even started jogging. Then there was the healthy diet phase. I stopped eating junk food and instead drank protein shakes with raw eggs. I even fasted on Sundays. Then there was the meditation phase. I started attending ashrams and bought some tapes on meditation. I even got a special meditation timer. Nothing worked, though. After each phase, my drinking and my life got worse.

Next I turned my attention to controlling and enjoying my drinking. My brother told me his brilliant idea of drinking a glass of water between drinks. I tried it. I peed a lot. Next, I tried drinking only premium tequilas. There was gold and silver, and also premium aged tequilas for $65 a bottle. I even bought a book on how to cook with tequila. Drinking and cooking with tequila got me pretty drunk. Then I tried the Dr. Bob beer experiment. Surely beer was safe. Off to Costco I went to buy cases of beers from around the world. I drank a lot of beer, and peed even more, and stayed drunk. My life didn’t improve.

When I entered recovery, you made a novel suggestion: don’t drink! Wow, that was new. Surely, that couldn’t be the total problem, I thought. Turns out, it was. After many inventories, I finally made the connection that I have the disease of alcoholism, and when I drink, bad things happen. Further, I discovered that if I am trying to control my drinking, I’m not enjoying it. And if I’m enjoying my drinking, I’m not controlling it. Ultimately, for me to drink is to die, and to be miserable until that happens. Today, my solution is simple because everything else has failed. Now I just don’t drink, and my life gets better.