This YouTube video (hosted by Amber Hollingsworth) teaches a three-step approach to break a drinking cycle: (1) be brutally honest about drinking patterns and recognize benefits of sobriety; (2) commit to changing routines, places and relationships that trigger drinking; and (3) build accountability (including social disclosure and optional automated monitoring with Soberlink) and plan for difficult moments. The video mixes practical advice, behavioral changes, and a sponsor-backed monitoring recommendation, ending with a call to watch a related relapse-prevention video.
Chapters
If you really want to break that drinking cycle, get serious about these three things. The first thing you got to do is get really honest with yourself. You're thinking, well, I'm already being honest, I'm already telling, I already know that I need to quit drinking. But are you being completely honest with yourself? Are you telling yourself things like, well, maybe if I take a little break from it, then I'll be able to drink manageably in the future. Are you telling yourself, okay, I need to take a break, I really like overdid it and I need to get some distance from it, but eventually I'll be drinking again. Are you telling yourself, yeah, I need to break that drinking cycle, but I just need to cut it back. These are all ways of minimizing the drinking issue, which eventually will lead you back into the drinking problem. Because at some point, you know, maybe you're sober for a week, maybe you're sober for a month, maybe you're sober for a year or two, you start to think, okay, I got it, I'm stabilized now, things are better. It will be different this time. That thought it'll be different this time is the number one cause of relapse. That is the thought that is going to take you down. So you absolutely have to figure out how to get very, very honest with yourself about it. Now, that honesty might look something like, but another piece of that honesty is about realizing that the grass is actually greener. On the sober side. If you will pay attention to what your life is really like sober, you're going to notice that you feel better, your relationships are better, you have more energy, you have more motivation, you like yourself better, you get more stuff done, you make more money, you're more productive at school, all of those things. But you have to actually open your eyes to that. If you keep yourself in that kind self pity mindset of woe is me and why can everybody else drink and I can't? You actually won't be able to see those things. Even though they'll probably still be there, you won't be paying attention to them. And that will build up on you after a while because you'll just be feeling like you're missing out, feeling like it. Maybe it was better over there, that there's something over there that you want. It's all about being honest with yourself about why you need to take the break from drinking, about why you need to stay not drinking, and about what life is really like on the drinking side and on the sober side. Now the number two next thing you need to do is you need to commit to the process. Now that means more than just saying I'm not going to drink anymore. It means committing to do whatever you need to do to make sure you can stay not drinking, which probably means, at least for a while, not going to certain places. It probably almost always means that there's a person or two that you need to kind of distance yourself from. Now, I'm not saying that you can never talk to this person again, although in some cases that might need to happen. You're the one that knows that. But you've got some people in your life that trigger your drinking. I'm not saying that they're worse than you. I'm not saying that it's their fault. I'm not saying that they're bad influences. I'm saying that you associate drinking with certain people, places and things and you're going to have to remove yourself from those people, places and things in order to not be triggered all the time. After a while, that gets easier and easier. You don't have to stay away from anybody who has a drink ever forever. But you are going to have to make some changes in your life. And some of those people, places, in things might be really hard, but you're gonna need to commit to it. You're gonna need to be willing to do what you know deep down inside you need to do in order to make this change. And this third step is actually your fail proof step in case number one or number two falls to the cracks. You need to create accountability, which means you need to make it really, really hard to relapse, which will help you on those days when you do come across those people, places and things or triggers, or you have to be in a situation or you start having those doubts in your mind and you start maybe feeling like the grass is greener over there on that drink inside, missing out on something. If you've created accountability and you've made it difficult for yourself to go back to alcohol, then you're a lot more likely to stay solid. Part of that number one about being honest with yourself is being honest with yourself, that you're going to have some bad days, you're going to have some days when you don't feel like it anymore and you really just want to have a drink. That's where number three comes in. It comes in with planning. Now how do you do that? Accountability? Several ways you can do that. The first thing you need to do is tell some people that you don't drink anymore. And I know that's a hard one. And you're thinking, well, everyone doesn't even know my business. And you're right, I'm not telling you to tell everyone. But you know that there's some people in your life that you need to tell, like your drinking buddies. If you're going to cut them off and never answer their phone call again, fine, don't tell them. But if you plan to continue that relationship with someone who you normally drink with, then you are going to need to tell them something. Otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure. And you may even need to block certain phone numbers from calling your phone. I used to in the past limit yourself or log off of, at least for a while, your social media. And if you really want to do number three super solid and make sure you are done with drinking alcohol forever, then put some kind of systematic accountability in place for yourself. Some kind of recovery monitoring system like Sober Link. You guys know I'm a big fan. Sober Link is a sponsor of this channel, but I love them no matter what. Been using them forever and ever. Long before I was making YouTube videos. Soberlink is basically alcohol monitoring that you can put in place that happens on its own. It's an automated process where you set up and agree to be tested. At certain times. You get a text message that reminds you to take a test. You take the test, results are recorded and you can have those results sent to someone else, which I do recommend. Now you can decide who that someone else is. It could be your sponsor, it could be your counselor, your coach, it could be your family member if you want. But knowing that someone else knows is a big piece of that accountability, which actually makes you have to really stop and think about that relapse. It really helps to take care of that. Impulsive. I'm having a bad day. Making a rational decision that you're going to regret. Go ahead and put this in place before you get to that moment because you're going to have moments like that. And it doesn't mean that you don't want. It just means that you're human and you have to plan for those days. Now, if you want to learn more about soberlink, I have put the link for you in the description. And up next, I want you to watch this video which is all about relapse prevention.
