Get Curious

The very best advice I can offer, if you are wondering about your relationship with alcohol is learn, learn, learn.

Alcohol is a prickly topic and as with many such topics, can elicit some very curious responses from fiends and family.  It requires some introspection and some deeper thinking before you go out there and get confused by other people's points of view.  It also has a long history, a marketing dream-team and terminology that dates back decades. 

​I personally have a distaste for the following terms:

• Alcoholic - this conjures up images of a man in a gutter, clutching a paper bag having lost all of his other worldly possession and connections, in favour of his bottle.
• Functioning Alcohol - as if in some way there is anything functional about alcoholism or worse yet, that it may be a state to be aspired to, as you hear "I am a functioning alcoholic" bandied around in social situations.
• Relapse - alcoholism isn't a cancer that just returns.  This medical definition completely disregards the psychology behind alcohol over-use.
• Sober - this sounds like an utterly boring existence and worse still "counting your days of sobriety" sounds completely miserable. When you count its' as though you are demonstrating grit and determination in avoiding something that is missed.  Remaining sober is not just a behavioural process..  We need to flip the narrate in our heads  and look not at what we have lost but what we have gained. 

So get informed. Learn what we know now about alcohol now. Have a really honest and private look at your own journey and interacts with alcohol and ask yourself if it is still serving you as well as it once did.

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Isread quit-lit, even if you are not looking to quit!

Recommended Reading
My top 10 (in no particular order)

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear
2. Drink? The Science of Alcohol + Your Health by Prof David Nutt
3. A Happier Hour by Rebecca Weller
4. Highlight Real by Emily Lynn Paulson
5. Alcohol Explained 2 by William Porter
6. The Unexpected Joy of being Sober by Catherine Gray
7. The Easy way for Women to Stop Drinking by Allen Carr
8. The Sober Diaries by Clare Pooley
9. This Naked Mind by Annie Grace
10. Knowing Yourself by Roy Baumeister

Recommended Listening
Podcasts (in no particular order)

1.  This Naked Mind with Annie Grace
2. The Bubble Hour with Jean McCarthy
3. Take a Break with Rachel Hart
4. Love Sober Kate and Mandy
5. Soberful the Podcast with Veronica Vali and Chip Somers
6. She Recovers Podcasts with Dawn Nickel and Terence Strong

When you have read and heard enough and start to realise that you might benefit from a break, please get in touch.  
This is not about pledging long-term sobriety but rather a curiosity about how life could be different. All it takes is 30 days and so much to learn. You don't have to try this alone.

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CONTACT KIRSTEN

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