A question that resides at the back of the mind of every former drinker, or individuals looking to get sober is, can you really quit booze forever? Can alcohol addiction become a thing of the past?

The short answer is, of course, you can, as long as you are constantly putting effective strategies and simple, healthy habits into place that supports and nourishes an addiction-free life.

There’s no doubting it, alcohol addiction isn’t something that’s overcome in a day, trust me, I’ve been through it, and it absolutely sucks if you’re doing it the hard way for too long.

In this article, we’ll look at re-iterating some of the core and almost foundational concepts you can implement to knock alcohol addiction to the curb.

Go Public with your Alcohol Addiction

If you really want to quit alcohol and go the distance, you must make it public, a term also known as burning the bridges.

Usually, when we attempt to quit alcohol, we try and do it on our own, or sometimes feel that we have to do it on our own.

The reality is, you don’t have to, you shouldn’t have to, and people will understand your situation, and help.

Alcohol addiction can have a powerful grasp on our lives, which often distorts our perception of what we think is normal. When we attempt to quit on our own without the outside view of family or friends, our willpower remains distorted, increasing our likelihood of relapse.

Read more about taking Leaps of Faith and the Importance of Burning your Bridges here.

Denial and Minimisation

The two worst enemies of any addiction, especially alcohol addiction, are denial and minimisation.

Addiction is a disease of denial and minimisation.

As I mentioned earlier, alcohol addiction distorts our perception, our thought processes, and it does it through these two mechanisms.

Denial can be viewed as incorrect brain wiring, we do things that are wrong, but the wiring in our brain denies the existence of problems, or reality that we have to face.

Minimisation on the other hand distorts our own reality away from the truth; it downplays the severity of scenarios or habits that would otherwise be seen as severe addictive habits.

This is why mindset is so powerful, and how your perspective on life can actually be a great long-term strategy in staying sober.

Failure is Part of the Process

One thing that is absolutely critical in alcohol addiction, whether you like it or not, are actually the failures we go through (or relapses).

A term that I’ve found to be a better description of this, which was coined on the Recovery Elevator podcast, is field research.

There’s absolutely no way we can relapse once, and quit. Well, I mean, I guess there’s a small chance, really small, but failures are an opportunity to learn, create resilience and build even stronger foundations.

Read more about The importance of Failure, and How It Leads to Success here.

The Takeaway

Let’s be honest, breaking an alcohol addiction is no easy feat, and it can often have such as tight grasp on our lives, that we don’t even see it.

It’s important to know though, that we can break this habit, and live a booze free life, so long as we’re seeking the help of others, and incorporating basic foundational habits.

If you have any feedback regarding this article, reach out. Help Clarity reach more people and quit addiction by following us on Instagram, it’s also the perfect place to message us and ask questions!

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Stephen Brumwell

Former drinker, Nutritionist, Biohacking enthusiast, self-experimenter, research fanatic, and self-taught writer, Stephen immerses himself deep into the literature of human optimisation and better understand the nature of addiction. His goal is to help people take control of their addiction, reset their cravings, unscramble their broken brain circuitry and use actionable strategies that work ten times better than anything else.