Alcohol feels impossible to quit, until this happens…

For the 10 years that I drank was one thing and one thing only , and today I'm going to show you what that one thing was . I'm going to show you how to overcome it and how you can stop drinking alcohol without any willpower , without going to AA meetings , without feeling like you're missing out on anything . I'm going to show you how I did it .

So what was the thing that stopped me from quitting drinking alcohol ? It was all in my mind . So what I used to think is that if I stopped drinking , how am I going to deal with life ? How am I going to deal with stress ? How am I going to be able to socialize ? How am I going to go to a nice restaurant ?

How am I going to , you know , unwind after a hard day ? How am I going to celebrate ? But I had all of these things that I associated alcohol with . So I used to think okay , if I don't drink alcohol , how am I going to survive ? How am I going to do all of these things ? And even when I didn't drink , all those beliefs were still there .

Right , I saw alcohol as this thing that added loads of value to my life . So even during like the periods where I'd stop and start because I drank for about 10 years , but I would stop a month here , three months there , six months here you know , I stopped and started all the time . Even during the periods where I stopped , I still held on to these beliefs .

And I'll tell you what those beliefs were . They were nothing more than fear , and it was the fear that by stopping drinking alcohol , I would be worse off . That's it . This fear is totally , totally irrational . I'll tell you why . All of those things that I thought that I associated alcohol with were often created by alcohol in the first place .

I'll give you an example . So I used to think how am I going to relax without alcohol ? Let's just break this down a little bit further . When you drink alcohol , you're actually addicted to a drug . Don't skip the video . I know that might sound like a shock , it might sound a bit harsh , but it is drug addiction . Right , you're like a shock .

It might sound a bit harsh , but it is drug addiction . Right , you're drinking a drug . When you take a drug , it's an addiction . There's just different levels of severity . No matter how you want to put it , even if you only drink a glass of wine a night , there's still some level of addiction .

So what happens in this relaxation example is , when you don't have the drug , there is a very slight feeling of not being relaxed . There's a very slight feeling of not being relaxed . There's a very slight feeling of agitation . Now , for a heavy drinker , there's a very big feeling of agitation .

But even for the casual drinker right , for the person that drinks half a bottle of wine at the weekend they still get this weird slight feeling of agitation . So during the 10 years that I drank , I would get that feeling and then it would instantly be gone as soon as I drank .

What I thought was happening before I studied alcohol and before I started researching is I thought alcohol was making me feel relaxed . No , it wasn't making me feel relaxed at all . What was happening is alcohol was creating a feeling of being unrelaxed in the first place .

And if you've read any stop drinking literature , this kind of example comes up time and time again . But the point of the matter is , is almost every fear I had about stopping drinking alcohol was created by alcohol in the first place ? I'd give you another example . I used to think that if I drank alcohol I was more social .

If I really reflect back at my life , what it may have done is alleviated a moment of fear to approach a new person or maybe to say something a little bit controversial or outlandish , so it would remove this sense of fear . But did it make me more social ? Absolutely not , absolutely not . Like man , if I get four beers in me , I am talking complete nonsense .

Oh , I remember I was in a members club once in London and I have this really vague memory and I have got no idea what I said to this guy . But it was this massive black dude . He looked like I don't know some gangster or something , looked scary as , and he stood up and he like pushed me and confronted me .

And I'm not , you know , I never , I've never really gone into a fight like that before and I was like , oh what ? And I can't remember what I said . That's the thing is . I can't remember what I said Wait , hang on . So so wait a minute .

I'm afraid of stopping drinking alcohol because I might not be able to socialise Yet , at the same time , struggled to stop drinking alcohol was because of this fear , and all of it was in my mind , every little bit of it . It was all in my head .

And once I stopped drinking alcohol , all the reasons why I thought I drank went away and I felt totally fine without drinking . Now how I got there was when I stopped drinking just under seven years ago is I did do a lot of introspection . I read a lot , I thought a lot , I did a lot of journaling and I really unpacked it .

And that's why there's no chance of me going back to alcohol , because I've really reflected on it . And these days , you know , I'm totally fine to socialize without drinking . I feel 10 times less stressed , and if I do get stressed , I've got ways of coping with it without going to a drug . If I want to relax , guess what ?

I don't need to go and drink a drug . That makes me unrelaxed in the first place . I can have a bath , right . I can go for a massage , I can go for a walk , I can talk to my partner , I can watch a movie . There's a million ways to relax that don't involve taking a highly addictive poison , but the fear of stopping drinking alcohol is massive .

It is the biggest problem that people face , and it's exactly what I do in my program is we eradicate this fear ? So then , rather than stopping drinking , feeling like this , this fighting , this struggle in this battle , it feels more like a logical choice , because that's what we're trying to do .

We don't want to live our lives struggling and fighting and resisting alcohol forever . Oh , mosquito , mosquito . I must not get bitten by a mosquito . I think I've said this in a few videos , but I got . I got dengue fever like a year ago , and I'm terrified of getting bitten because I think if you get dengue fever a second time , you can die .

Anyway , we're good . The point of the matter is , you have got nothing to fear , and I'll tell you this . I went from being fat , lethargic , financially broke , broken up in my relationship , destroying a business , to stopping drinking and literally living the life of my dreams , being in a place like this . You know , I'm about to get married .

I got into the best shape of my life . I've been able to travel the world . I've , you know , we just got back from , like , this amazing six-week road trip across all of America . It was insane . We're now here in this incredible villa . I mean , all of this stuff happened after stopping drinking alcohol and I'm telling you you've got nothing to fear .

Life just gets better and better and better . Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help .