Hidden Mechanisms - Part 3 of 5
Part 1: Mild Withdrawals: Why They Mislead Us
Part 2: The Mental Shortcut: Why We Avoid Internal Conflict
Part 3: Overloaded Thinking ← you’re here
Part 4: Why Alcohol Memories Can Trigger Cravings
Part 5: The Social Scam: How We Were Conditioned to Drink
Recap: Hidden Mechanisms That Keep Us Drinking (Recap)
Sometimes we’ve already played the whole drinking session out in our head before we pour the first one. We picture the bottle, the glass and the first bit of relief. Then we think about where we’ll buy it, how much we’ll get and how we’ll keep it under control this time.
Nothing has happened yet. But alcohol is taking up more and more of our head. And after thinking about it for long enough, drinking can start to feel like we’ve already decided.
How the drinking rehearsal starts
It can begin with one ordinary thought. We get invited somewhere and picture what people will be drinking. We finish a difficult morning and imagine the first drink later that evening.
Or we notice there’s nothing in the house and start thinking about whether we should buy something, just in case. Then the mind keeps returning to it. We run through different versions, make rules and start working alcohol into the evening before we’ve even admitted to ourselves that we plan to drink.
That’s the drinking rehearsal.
When thinking turns into pressure
Our head can only hold so much at once. If a few alcohol thoughts keep going around, there’s less room for the rest of what we need to think about. We could be trying to work, have a conversation or get through ordinary tasks while another part of our mind keeps returning to the drink.
After a while, we can become so tired of thinking about alcohol that drinking looks like the fastest way to make it stop.
Why it can feel like we’ve already decided
And the more detail we add, the more real it can start to feel.
We see ourselves stopping at the shop. We know what we’ll buy. We imagine where we’ll sit and how the first one will feel.
By then, we’ve already pictured it several times. So a thought like “I’m probably going to drink anyway” can show up.
It can sound like we’re only predicting what will happen. But really, we might be giving ourselves permission to drink.
We’ve spent so long picturing one outcome that it starts to feel like the only one.
A memory can start the whole thing
Other times, a memory starts it. A song, smell, photo or familiar place reminds us of drinking and brings back an old feeling. Then we follow it.
We picture the drink, remember the relief and start thinking about having one again. And an alcohol memory can turn into a much longer drinking rehearsal.
We might not control that first memory. But we can stop ourselves from adding more and more to it.
Catch it while it’s still small
It helps to catch those first few thoughts before we’ve spent the whole day rehearsing the evening. So when we notice ourselves planning the drink, we can name what is happening.
“I’m rehearsing drinking.”
Saying that can help us see what we’re doing. Then we can stop adding detail. We don’t need to work out whether we could keep it to two, what we would buy or how the night might go.
Those questions keep the rehearsal running.
Remember what came afterwards
If the drink keeps coming back into our head, we can keep playing the night past the first one.
What normally happened after that first bit of relief?
Did one become more? Did we sleep badly, wake up anxious or lose the next day? Did we have to start the same argument with ourselves again?
We’re reminding ourselves what usually happened after the first drink.
If we only picture the first drink, of course it can look appealing. We need to include what normally came afterwards as well.
Picture a different evening
If an event or evening is coming up, we can picture it without alcohol before the old rehearsal gets going.
What will we drink instead? Who can we spend time with? How will we leave if the situation becomes difficult? What will the next morning feel like?
It could feel unfamiliar at first because we’ve practised the drinking version far more often. A few simple sober visualisation exercises can help us make the alcohol-free version easier to picture. The thing is, our mind is going to imagine something.
If we leave it alone, it might keep returning to the version it knows best. We can notice that rehearsal early, stop building it and put our attention on something else. A drinking thought can come up without becoming a drinking plan.
The next article looks at why a memory can trigger a craving before we’ve decided to drink.
— Brent