"My Alcohol Rehab" - How I Quit Drinking Alcohol

Remember, that first exercise on the previous page is a very important one for overcoming alcohol addiction, so be sure to practice it often. You might want to print these pages out for easy reference.
 

Mental Exercise #2:

For this exercise, please read the whole section before proceeding.

First, grab a bottle of your favorite alcohol (or if you've already quit drinking, just imagine that you're holding a bottle of it). Now, take a long whiff (smell) of the alcohol, and as you do so try to create a feeling of intense nausea within yourself. You can stick your tongue out and create the gag reflex in the back of your throat, like you're going to vomit. Really try to self-induce a feeling of sickness and the sensation that you want to throw-up. Then, imagine that you're taking a sip of alcohol, hold it in your mouth, taste it, and as you do so, expand that sense of nausea within yourself. Come as close as you possibly can to actually making yourself ill. As you imagine the liquid sliding down your throat and into your stomach, feel the throat and stomach membranes being burned by the alcohol, your nausea growing. Continue doing this for 2-3 minutes.

This exercise may seem extreme, but what you're doing is re-associating alcohol with a negative sensation - which is really how you really SHOULD feel when drinking. Alcohol is poisoning the cells in your body, filling them with destructive and carcinogenic materials. So work on your ability to produce these feelings as you imagine yourself drinking. If you ever do revert to drinking alcohol again, make a special point of generating these feelings while you do so. Since it's just an internal feeling, it's not difficult to practice this exercise even while drinking with other people around. Within a short amount of time, your body will start to re-associate alcohol with the more appropriate sense of sickness, rather than the false sense of relaxation/numbness. Soon your cravings will start to appear less often, and less intensely.
 

Mental Exercise #3:

This is another exercise for self-generating more appropriate emotional energies. For this one, find a photo or advertisement with a picture of someone drinking alcohol. As you look at that photo, create within yourself a deep sense of sorrow for that person. Sorrow that they have been deceived into thinking that what they're doing is enjoyable, sorrow that they have not found real ways to enjoy life, sorrow that they are destroying their body, and sorrow that they are missing out on the best that life has to offer.

Next, look upon the drinker with the perspective and emotional response that you would have when watching someone who is really doing something foolish and idiotic. Expand those sensations of disgust as much as possible.

Also, practicing this exercise every time you see someone drinking alcohol (e.g. a friend that you're with, an actor/actress in a movie, or any stranger). Doing so will help you overcome the trap of "alcohol jealousy", and prevent you from falling back into perceiving drinking as something "cool", "sophisticated", "relaxing", or anything else positive. In your new and true perspective, being a "non-drinker" is the real sign of maturity, freedom from illusions, attractiveness, potential for happiness, and so on.
 

Mental Exercise #4:

For this exercise, create a list of all the benefits that you once associated with drinking alcohol. For example: "more social connections", "living fully","mental relaxation", "enjoying life", "more confident", and so on. This list will vary from person to person, so just concentrate on things that personally attract(ed) you to alcohol.

Now, close your eyes, direct your awareness inwardly, and congratulate yourself for now having achieved a greater level of all the things on your list simply because you are a NON-DRINKER now. Yes, review the first page of this site if you need to and you'll remember that being a non-drinker puts you into closer alignment with the person and life that you really desire. So generate a feeling of true inner congratulations toward yourself.

Now, self-generate a deep sensation pride in your body for becoming the person and achieving the life you desire by becoming a non-drinker. Then, generate a sensation of joy for the fact that you have achieved what you desire because you are a non-drinker. Then, create a feeling of true excitement within yourself about the new, strong, self-directed, addiction-conquering, possibilities-seeking person that you now are because you are a non-drinker. Then, generate a sense of gratitude for your new enlightenment, and the fact that you have a real advantage over drinkers in finding real success and happiness in life. You have become a stronger human being because of this process, so generate a feeling of joy and excitement for that as well.

You get the idea here - self generate a spectrum of positive emotions within yourself and associate them with being a non-drinker. Practice this mental exercise a couple times per day, perhaps when you wake up and again before you go to sleep.

You can probably see now that the road to the life you desire is not through drinking or any of the false promises that resulted from old perceptions about alcohol, but rather through maintaining a clear mind and following your own intuition. Practice these exercises regularly, and soon the newer, truer perceptions will become the basis from which you make all your decisions. Soon your subconscious mind will be retrained and cravings will simply dissolve. Remember, you must really practice these exercises - you cannot just read them. Also, implement these exercises when find yourself around people who are drinking or when offered a drink. Since they are all internal/mental processes, they are not difficult to perform completely unnoticed even while socializing.

You are now armed with some powerful mental tools to protect you against the deception of alcohol. Remember that regardless of what other goals you have for yourself, if you are suffering from alcohol addiction, then to stop drinking alcohol is probably the number one most positive thing you can do to improve the quality of your life right now. So make mastering these exercises a real priority in your life. Your efforts will be well worth it.

I wish you the best of luck on this new journey, and sincerely hope that some of the information you encountered here will help in your quest to once again be a non-drinker. If you get a chance, I'd love to hear your feedback, personal story, or any suggestions.