Literally, we mean "getting drunk" rather than "drinking".

For most people, "drinking a glass of wine" has long meant a happy time for friends to laugh and laugh. Based on the different ages of each of us, based on the environment around us when we first drank, we all have all kinds of memories and expectations (sometimes anxiety), which reminds us of a cold beer, a cocktail, gin and tonic water, whisky and beer, a sip of red wine and so on.

Over and over again, in the early drinking process of most people, the expectation of alcohol can always meet the actual needs of drinking.

If every time is just right, we will naturally think that "drinking a glass of wine" is a pleasant experience, which not only meets our own needs, but also does not exceed the norms of religious customs. At the same time, it satisfies our desires, caters to the etiquette of social occasions, and helps us relax, cheer up and realize our various pursuit goals. For example, a 55-year-old Finn, when someone asks him for a drink, can't help but immediately think of the warmth brought by drinking a glass or two of brandy or vodka in cold weather when he was young.

If she is a young woman, she may immediately think of a gorgeous crystal cup filled with champagne, fragrant clothes, intimate friendship and romantic atmosphere, or a young man with jeans, beard and long hair at a rock concert, taking out a bottle of booze from a bag full of bottled wine, with flashing lights and smoke, and everyone screaming and screaming, which is exciting. A member of AA said: "Have a drink" is almost synonymous with eating pizza and drinking beer.

Another 78-year-old widow said that when she was in a nursing home, she often couldn't help but think of the habit of drinking a glass of sherry before going to bed. Although this kind of drinking is very natural in our minds, it is misleading in our current situation, and this is also the way some of us start drinking.

If this is the process of drinking, it is unlikely that we will deteriorate into a drinking problem in the future. However, if we look at the process of drinking fearlessly, we will find that no matter how hard we try, there has never been such a perfect and magical moment in our last few years or months of drinking.

On the contrary, we have repeatedly found that our actual drinking amount is far greater than this, which always leads to some kind of trouble in the end. Maybe we just feel a little guilty about drinking too much in private.

But sometimes it will turn into a fierce quarrel, which will affect your work and even lead to serious diseases, accidents, or legal and financial problems. So, when a suggestion of "drinking" appears, now we try to recall the whole process from the beginning of drinking to the last poor drunkenness and hangover.

General friends invite us to drink, which generally refers to the way of entertainment and a cup or two of tasting.

But if we carefully recall all the details of the pain caused by the last drunkenness, we will not be confused by the long-standing impression of "drinking a glass of wine" in our minds.

Now we can frankly admit that in terms of our real physiological reaction, we are quite sure that a cup of yellow soup means that we will get drunk again sooner or later, which will bring a series of troubles.

Drinking no longer means music and joy to us, but memories of illness and regret. A member of Alcoholics Anonymous once said, "I know that if I go to a bar for a drink now, it will never be the same again, just spend a little time and some money."

This drink will exhaust my bank account, my family, my house, my car, my job, my reason and even my life. This is really too big, too expensive and too risky. "

He remembers the last time he got drunk, not the first time he drank.

Abandon old ideas

In the past, during drinking, we accumulated some deep-rooted ideas from life. Even after we stop drinking, they can't disappear like magic.

Although we are far away from the days of leading a drunken life, the disease of alcohol addiction still lingers. Therefore, we find that if we can try to get rid of many old ideas that are budding again, it will help us to recover.

And these old ideas do happen again and again. The goal we strive to achieve is to regain a sense of relaxation and freedom from the shackles of old ideas in the past. Many of our past thoughts and habits.

The concept it forms limits our autonomy.

When we look at it carefully with brand-new eyes, it turns out that they will only crush us and are useless. We don't need to stick to it any longer, unless it is proved to be useful by clear tests and it really works.

We can now use very specific standards to measure the current practicality and authenticity of an idea. We can say to ourselves, "I often think so when I drink." Does this mode of thinking help me stay awake now? Is this kind of thinking good for me today? " Many of our old ideas-especially those about alcohol, drinking, drunkenness and alcohol dependence (or alcoholism, if you agree with this wording)-are either worthless or actually self-destructive, and it will be a great relief to get rid of those ideas.

Perhaps a few examples are enough to illustrate the benefits of abandoning these old and useless ideas. When we are teenagers, for many people, drinking is an oath, indicating that we are no longer children, or that we have grown up. We are smart, mature, experienced or strong enough to disobey our parents and other authorities.

In many people's minds, drinking is always inseparable from romance, sex, music, success, superiority and luxury. If the school teaches anything about drinking, it's usually just the danger to health and the possibility of losing your driver's license-not much else.

At the same time, many people are still quite convinced that any drinking behavior is completely immoral and directly leads to crime, pain, humiliation and death. No matter what we used to feel about drinking, positive or negative, it is usually strong, emotional and far more than rational. Maybe our attitude towards drinking is just an unconscious and unthinking acceptance of other people's opinions.

For many people, drinking is a necessary and harmless part of social occasions, and it is a pleasant leisure activity between friends at a certain time and place.

Others may think that drinking is necessary for eating. But now we ask ourselves: If we don't drink, can't we actually enjoy friendship or food? It's the way we drink

Help improve your social relations? Can this improve our ability to enjoy food? Whether for or against the idea of getting drunk, the resulting reaction is even more extreme. A heavy drinker may be regarded as just having fun or just losing face.

For various reasons, the idea of getting drunk often makes many people feel disgusted. But for some of us, this is a state of longing. Getting drunk is not only to meet other people's expectations, but we also like this feeling. But at the same time, there is another influencing factor, which is the public's neglect of social celebrities.

Some people can't tolerate people who have never been drunk, and some people look down on people who are too drunk. As far as the conclusions found in health care today are concerned, the impact of changing these attitudes is still quite limited. When we first hear the word "alcoholic", most of us associate it with people who are old, ragged, shivering or begging, or people who get drunk in slums.

Anyone who has a full understanding of this problem now knows that this is all nonsense. However, despite this, when we first tried to stay awake, the vague concepts left over from our past still bothered us.

It blinds our eyes and makes it difficult for us to perceive the truth. But in the end, we finally become willing to accept that changing our past ideas-only possible-may be a bit wrong, or at least it can't fully reflect our personal experience. When we can convince ourselves to look at the past experience honestly and listen to other ideas different from ourselves carefully, we can face a long list of information that has not been examined in detail in the past with an open mind.

For example, we can look at the narrative of science majors: alcohol is not only a delicious drink to quench thirst, but also a drug that can change ideology. We know that drugs exist not only in drinks, but also in food and various drugs. And now almost every day, I can read or hear the multiple harms caused by some specific drugs to the human body.

Harm (including heart, blood vessels, stomach, lungs, mouth, brain, etc.). This is a situation that we have never doubted before. Pharmacologists and other addiction treatment experts now believe that alcohol, whether used as a drink, stimulant, sedative, tonic or sedative, can not be completely regarded as safe. But in each case, it may not directly lead to physical injury or mental fatigue.

Obviously, most people can use it gracefully, without causing harm to themselves or others. We found that drinking can be regarded as taking medicine in medicine, and getting drunk is like taking too much medicine. Drug abuse can directly or indirectly lead to various health, mental, family, social, economic and work problems.

We can start to see the consequences of alcohol for some people, instead of most people just thinking about what drinking brings us. We also found that anyone who has a drinking problem may be in what we call a "drinking" state.

The target of this disease is regardless of age, belief, race, sex, intelligence, background, mood, health, occupation, family status, physical fitness, eating habits, social or economic status or other general personality. The question is not how much or how you drink, when and why you drink, but how drinking affects your life-what happens when you drink.

Before we realize that we have this disease, we must first walk out of an old and boring misunderstanding: it is shameful and cowardly to admit that we can't control our drinking capacity (if we ever control it).

Weak? In fact, we need considerable courage to face up to this cruel reality. There is no reservation, no cover-up, no excuse, and we don't have to deceive ourselves. Although it doesn't seem like boasting, frankly speaking, many of us fantasize about being world champions. In the process of recovering from alcohol addiction, we will also be covered by some wrong ideas. Just like millions of other people, seeing a person die because of drinking with their own eyes, they will be very surprised why this alcoholic can't stop drinking with his own willpower.

This is another outdated concept, and we will always remember this concept, mainly because many of us have been exposed to some typical cases of super willpower in our early years, perhaps because our family or neighborhood has had legends. After years of bohemian life, he became notorious, but suddenly he changed his lifestyle and gave up alcohol and women. At the age of 50, he turned over a new leaf and became a model of decent behavior and honesty.

This naive idea that we can follow suit when we are ready is a dangerous illusion. We are not anyone else. We are just ourselves (we are not grandfathers who drink a big bottle every day and live to be 90 years old). ) Now we are very sure that overcoming the problem of alcohol addiction by our own willpower is as effective as treating cancer. We have repeatedly confirmed this from our own experience.

Most of us try to solve it alone, whether we want to control our drinking or give up drinking, but no matter how hard we try, we can't achieve lasting success. Even so, it is not easy for us to frankly admit that we need help. Because this seems to be a sign of cowardice.

Yes, we are deeply lost in another. But in the end, we ask ourselves: if we can gain and use more powerful power, will we be wiser than working in vain alone, especially after we have repeatedly proved that it doesn't work? If you press the switch, you can turn on the light. We think it unwise to continue trying to grope in the dark. We can't be fully awake ourselves. This is not the way we learned to stay awake.

At the same time, fully enjoying a sober life is not a job that one can complete alone. As long as we can consider a few ideas different from the old ideas, even temporarily, we have made the right decision and entered a happy and healthy new life.

Originally, we were convinced that this would never happen, but now this change is happening among our thousands of members.