My life didn’t look like that of someone who was addicted to alcohol. I didn’t fit into my own cardboard cut out view of an alcoholic. I wasn’t pouring vodka on my cornflakes. I didn’t spend the day drinking cider on a park bench. I didn’t even drink every single day. I couldn’t have been an alcoholic.
What I definitely did have was a life that had been narrowed by drinking. A life where I made it through work, got to the end of the week exhausted and reached for a drink. A lot of drink. I started the next week sluggish from the weekend, limped through it and then repeated the cycle.
Going 99% sober helped me start living again. Everything improved. I started to see my life through clear eyes, rather than through the blur of a drinking session or the fog of a hangover. I had tried and failed for the best part of a decade to change my relationship with alcohol. My previous attempts were all based on moderation or giving up using sheer willpower. Willpower is finite. It runs out. It’s rare that willpower alone works for anyone. What does work is focusing on what you’re gaining.
But if you don’t know what you could be gaining, about how much better your life could look without booze, then you’re stuck thinking “alcohol is amazing, I need it, my life will suck without it”. You’ll always feel like you’re giving something up.