The Voyage of The Sobernaut

I'm well on my way. I took my last drink on Wednesday, August 1, 2007.

It is something I've been meaning to do for a very long time. I've started out as a social drinker in my teens. I've been drinking ever since. Daily.

Most recently, I had achieved the dubious milestone of being able to polish off one of these

every single night. Some nights it would even be a bit more.

That, my friends, is not a sustainable lifestyle for a 51 year old man. So I quit.

No AA, no 12 step programs, no support groups, none of that crap. I just fucking quit. I'm done.

Obviously I had a drinking problem, or I wouldn't have felt it necessary to quit. But I really don't buy into the whole "alcoholism as an incurable disease" crap.

It's not a disease.

Drinking is a conscious decision that every drinker makes. A "disease" can't make you get up, get dressed, find your car keys, go to the garage, get in your car, drive to the liquor store, walk in the store, pick up the bottle, take it to the counter, pay for it, take it home, open it up and take drink after drink after drink.

That's not a disease taking all of those actions. It's you. You're not a meat puppet having your strings pulled by some external force. It's you.

Those are all conscious decisions and at every one of those decision points you have the ability to say "NO...I'm not going to do it."

It doesn't take any will power not to due something that you don't want to do.

Do I get cravings? Yeah, sort of. But I recognize them for what they are.

Look, if you ate a Snickers bar everyday at 4:00, and you did that for years, and you suddenly quit, you would find yourself craving a Snickers bar everyday around 4:00.

That's not a "disease". You're not a snickerholic. That's just a classic Pavlovian conditioned response. If you wait it out, it goes away.

The human body doesn't need alcohol. No matter how much you drink, how often or for how long, your body never ever needs alcohol. In fact, it's a poison. It's just that little part of your brain that is conditioned to get it and wants it when it would usually have it. For me, that's right around the end of the work day. I would get home and pour my first drink of the evening and that is when I tend to want one the most.

But guess what? That part of my brain isn't the boss of me! I'm in charge!

If, at some point, I were to give into that craving and make a conscious decision to have a drink, I'll fess up to it on this blog.

But that isn't going to happen.

I gave up smoking pot and all other recreational drugs, oh, lets see, it was 4 years ago. Haven't touched them since. Never crave them or want them. Will never touch them again. I'm not a "recovering pot smoker". I just not a pot smoker anymore.

I quit smoking cigarettes just over a year ago. That was after 30+ years of smoking a pack and a half a day. Haven't had one since. I'm completely tobacco free. I never crave them or want them. Will never touch them again. I'm not a "recovering smoker". I'm a non-smoker.

Alcohol was my last self-destructive vice and now I've given it up too. I'm not a "recovering alcoholic". I just don't drink anymore.

I'll post more later, but I think this is enough to kick things off. Maybe I'll leave this post up until I get my first commentor.

Thanks for stopping by.