How to Overcome An Alcohol Problem Without Going To Rehab

Is it possible to beat your alcohol problem without having to go to rehab? Well, I think it is definitely possible. And in this video, I'm going to tell you our secret formula how we've helped hundreds of people get sober stop drinking without ever having to go to rehab. For those of you who are new here, welcome to Put the shovel down. This YouTube channel is all about helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction so you can get your life and your family back on track and get back to living the life that you want to live. Now, if you or a loved one is struggling with an alcohol use disorder, you may be wondering, what's it going to take to actually conquer this problem? And specifically, you may be wondering, can it be done without having to go to rehab? Well, like I mentioned at the beginning, I definitely think it's possible. But make sure you watch this whole video, because at the end, I'm going to tell you all about our secret weapon. The thing, the big thing that's really been the most helpful in helping hundreds of clients stop drinking, overcome alcoholism, and get back to living the life that they want to live. Now, anytime I'm talking to a person who's trying to overcome an alcohol problem or stop drinking, the first thing that I want to really think through is whether or not this person needs detox. Because, you see, with alcohol, it's actually, believe it or not, one of the more dangerous things to just stop. Cold turkey, meaning if you are highly alcohol dependent and you've been drinking a lot, kind of for a while, then just stopping and saying, I'm not going to drink anymore, and that's it, done. Cold turkey can be dangerous. In fact, you can be in danger of having a seizure or even of having psychosis. Now, I have a video that I made a while back to figure out whether or not you actually need the detox part. And I will link it up here at the end. But the one thing I want you to remember is you definitely need to take this part seriously. In some cases, just stopping drinking can be dangerous. So definitely don't skip this step. The second thing that you really got to put a lot of energy and effort into if you want to get sober without going to rehab is you're really going to have to wrap your mind around the nature of the problem that you're dealing with. Because you see, the second biggest factor that causes most people that we see in our office to fail of overcoming any kind of, like, substance use disorder is the fact that they have no idea what they're dealing Dealing with, they. They significantly underestimate the problem that they have. And I'm not even talking about the people that are like in denial. I'm talking about the people who know they have a problem and they want to get better. Even when you're in that situation, you gotta know what you're dealing with. Now, there are lots of ways to do this. And if you're trying to do this without going to rehab, and by rehab, just in case I haven't said it, what I mean is like 30, 60, 90 day treatment, that sort of thing. Impatient, like where you go and you stay and you live there. You see, most people want to avoid that because, well, all the reasons you can imagine, right? It's not the funnest thing ever to do. And you have to be taken out of your life for a really long period of time, which might, which means you might have to miss work, you're away from your family. I'm sure I really don't have to explain to you why a lot of people want to be able to do this without having to go away. But let me add in one little sidetrack note here. Despite the fact that a lot of people don't want to go away, one other thing that I personally think is important is if someone can get sober at home in their regular living environment, I think that's better. Because when you're sober away and you're like in a facility where you can't get it and you're pretty much on lockdown, that's one thing. But being sober while you're dealing with the stresses of everyday life, or you're going to work, or you're going to school, or you're dealing with your family, that's a whole nother ball game. And so even if you do get sober away in a rehab center, you gotta learn how to come back home and stay sober. What we're talking about today is how to stay sober. And in order to do that, you really have to understand the nature of what you're dealing with. There are lots of ways to do that. Maybe you have a counselor that you talk to, somebody that specializes in these types of problems. Maybe you go to 12 step meetings or some other kind of recovery support or some other kind of church recovery program. Maybe you read books, listen to podcasts, or even listen to videos on this channel or the many other channels that are out there to help educate you, or you have a recovery coach. There are a lot of ways to do this, but it is essential to start getting your head wrapped around the nature of this problem because it is very insidious. It can and will trick you. It will sneak back into your life. And if you don't know what's going to happen next, it's going to get you. So please do not underestimate this issue and think that just because you decide you wanted to stop, that's the end of it. Because you see, there are going to be days in your future where you really, really hardcore, to the depths of your soul, want to stop. And there are going to be days in your future where you're kind of like, I'm iffy. I got a foot over here and a foot over here. And there are going to be days in your future where you don't want to be sober anymore. There's going to be lots and lots of ups and downs. And so please, please, please do not be misled by the thought that I'm really committed and I really mean it and I'm done with it. And because I'm done with it, I for sure, that's it, it's over and I can stop worrying about because I'm just totally done. I'm putting it away. It does not work like that. If you think that, then that's another humongous, big, giant sign that you need to go back to step number two because you haven't done enough research and understanding about the nature of what you're dealing with. All right, now, speaking of having those ups and downs and those good days and bad days, that brings me to thing number three, which is absolutely critical. Are you hearing me? Critical if you want to stay sober without going to rehab. And that is creating strong accountability for yourself. And what I mean when I'm saying accountability is you have got to take drinking off the table for yourself for those days when you're not strong, for those days when you're really stressed out or you've ran out of willpower or you just don't care anymore, or everyone else around you drinking, you just want to so bad. You're going to have to make decisions when you're in your strong frame of mind to make sure that you don't drink when you're in your less strong frame of mind. Now, there are a few things I'm going to very strongly recommend that you do to create some accountability for yourself. And keep listening. Because one of those things is going to be the secret weapon I told you about. The first thing you need to do is you need to get really honest with the people around you about your Intention to not drink anymore. If you're trying to do this and you're trying to keep a secret and you're not telling your family and friends, I understand why you might think that or want to do it that way. Because you're like, well, if I fail, I don't want to be embarrassed. Or I've told them all before and they just don't want to hear it. Well, I want you to tell them again because basically not telling them is leaving yourself room for relapse. Like sometimes I have clients that tell me, well, I don't, I don't really want to tell my friends. I don't think it's any of their business or my work, co workers or whatever. And I'm like, are you not telling them because really it's not their business, or are you not telling them in case this whole sober thing doesn't work out? Right. Because if everyone knows that you're not supposed to be drinking and you're at the event, you have then taken away the option to drink because everyone around you knows. I mean, yeah, of course you could, but it'd be a lot harder. And that's what I mean by accountability. No, you don't have to tell the whole world, but the people that you're around regularly or the people that you would regularly drink with or that would be aware that you were drinking, you probably need to tell those people. And if you want to go a step above and beyond that because you really want to ensure that you don't relapse, I would go ahead and tell those people all those, like secret plans and schemes and things you did to get by with the drinking. Even the part of the drinking that you did that they don't know about. Yes, of course there was the part of the drinking that you did they don't know about. Yeah, they know about some of it. But there was more, right? There was the drinking behind the scenes. There was the snake drinking and the hidden drinking and the drinking before you drank with them drinking, Right? You're going to have to tell them, hey, if you see me going in this place, it's not a good sign. If I'm going down this street, not a good sign, or, hey, these are my triggers, or if I start acting like this, you know, ask me a question, you're going to have to like, lay it all out there. I say all the time on this channel that addiction lives in darkness and secrecy. It can't live in the light. And what I'm talking about right here is turning the light on the problem. Now, I know those sound like big, scary things, but here's the deal. If you want to get sober without going away, you're going to have to work hard at it. You're probably going to have to work harder at it than you would if you went away to rehab. Because when you go away to rehab, you don't have to deal with life. It's not really an option. You sit in groups all day and you talk about yourself and your problems, and you get all this support and love and encouragement, which is a whole different ballgame than the real world. Right? So if what you truly want to do is you're like, I can do this on my own, then you need to be prepared. This probably going to be harder. And you need to be prepared to take the steps necessary to make it happen. All right, you ready for our secret weapon? The thing that we've used so successfully in our practice is something called Soberlink. If you haven't heard of Soberlink before, essentially it is an alcohol monitoring system. And we've had tremendous success using this. In fact, I would say this is the number one thing that's allowed so many of our clients to get sober without having to go away. And you might be thinking, well, isn't that just a breathalyzer? Can't you get like a breathalyzer anywhere? Yeah, in its basic form, it's a breathalyzer, but it's a super high tech piece of technology that is way more advanced than just your basic breathalyzer that you can order off of Amazon. The Soberlink company are experts in alcohol monitoring and detection. Now, to give you just a quick overview of how this works is you get assigned a breathalyzer to yourself. It's portable, not the ones like in your car. It's yours. You take it around. It's about the size of a cell phone, only thicker. And it comes in a case that looks like a fancy sunglasses case. So you don't really have to worry about someone seeing it or being awkward. And you come up with a schedule for when you're going to be breathalyzed. Now, this can be done by you and your counselor, you and the Soberlink company, you and your spouse or your parent or your family, your friends, your coach, whoever. You come up with a schedule so you know when you're going to be tested. And you take tests regularly, like most of my clients do. SoberLynk get tested somewhere between three and four times a day in the beginning. And here's the cool part. If you miss your test, or you fail your test, or you're late on your test, your identified recovery supports can be notified. So when our clients do it, I get notified, but it doesn't have to be me. You could have that notification going to anyone in your support system that you think would be helpful to help you with accountability. Now, I know what you're thinking, because I understand just how sneaky an alcohol clone can be. You can be like, well, can't you just get your friend to take it or somebody else? The answer that is, you could try, but it won't work because Soberlink has facial recognition software in it. So every time you take a test, it takes a picture of your face and maps it against the master picture. And so it's going to detect if you're trying to cheat it, if you're trying to do something wonky with the, with the machine, if you're trying to have your friend do it, it's pretty much going to pick that up. Now, one really important aspect of Soberlink, the way we use it in our offices, it's not really designed to catch you drinking. Sure, it can cat you drinking, but the way we use it is really more of a preventative. This is. This is when a person is deciding up front to set up some accountability for themselves to make sure that they don't drink, which makes it so much easier to stay sober because it basically takes the option off the table, which means you don't have to do all this. Will, I want I sort of argument in your head all day. Now, just for full disclosure, I do want to tell you that. Put the shovel down. This YouTube channel is an affiliate of Soberlink, but long before we were an affiliate affiliate, we were big fans. In fact, I've been using Silverlink in my practice for probably, I can't even know, like seven or eight years now. I've used it tons and tons of times with massive success. I'm seriously a huge fan. In fact, I'm kind of mad that I didn't think of it and invented myself. I'm like, dang, I could have thought of that. Why did not think of that? So if you or your loved ones on this journey and you want to make sure that you can either get sober without going away to rehab or stay sober after you went away from rehab, seriously consider the sober link. In fact, I got a video down there where it's me showing it to you, demonstrating to you, telling you more about how it works. Now, of course, I'm going to make sure you have all the links in the description so that you can access more information and find out everything you want to know about it. Up next, as promised, here's that video for you to figure out whether or not you need detox. Because remember, that's the first step and the first big piece of this puzzle that you've got to figure out.