Fifty Days No Hard Liquor May 31, 2019

Fifty days ago I decided that I would abstain from drinking any hard liquor. Now as a bartender in New York City, that can be a difficult proposition since there are times that customers ask for you to join them in a round of shots. To be perfectly honest, I find that these days one shot, let alone a number of shots cause me to wake up the next day feeling as if I was hit by a truck. My body just can't handle the booze anymore. Plus I hate having to feel that way. Being hungover leads me to either lose a day off by spending it in bed recovering or having to go into work feeling like shit and not being at my best. In addition, the drinking of hard liquor doesn't work in favor of trying to get my health in order and offsets whatever gains I have from walking. I decided to take some time off from booze and downloaded the EasyQuit Drinking App to keep track of the time I've abstained from hard liquor. I still partake of a beer or two since I personally find my body tolerates the beer and its effect in a much better way than hard liquor.

A conversation with a customer the other night at Finn's Corner (660 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn NY) put my current streak into perspective. He was telling me about his wife who as a leading figure in her field of treatment of addiction, goes against the hardline methods of treating addiction that Alcoholics Anonymous and the like use. As he related, she advocates a more moderated approach to treating addiction. She also feels that going cold turkey (as is done with AA) leads to greater chance for failure and harm if someone happens to relapse. Imagine being told that you went "XX" amount of days sober but you relapsed. You failed at your goal and task and now have to start over. I can only imagine how difficult that can be for some people to hear that. To hear that they've failed. To her, the moderate weening of the addiction while trying to pinpoint the cause for the addiction and working on that stressor is the better way for treatment.

Now I haven't been in any kind of treatment program of any kind. I really can't say if either system works. I just know how my body feels when I don't have hard liquor to when I've had too many. For me it's actually easier to just quit and keep track as I've been doing with the app than to do a shot here and there. If I decide to have a shot or a cocktail, I personally wouldn't consider it a failure. Rather for me it would be a choice in the same way that I've decided to go a full year without eating meat as I have since May 28, 2018.

In reality, what is the best way? Cold turkey or via moderation. Honestly I don't know. I think it would depend on the individual himself or herself. I really can only speak for myself. What works for me won't work for others and vice versa. 

What do you find works for you. Feel free to comment in the box below and let me know what your thoughts are on this.

Until Then Keep Stepping,
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