We can see something about alcohol very clearly and still forget it when we want a drink. We know it ruins sleep. We know one usually becomes more. We know the relief is followed by another problem.
Then Friday evening arrives and the old story sounds convincing again. That's why some truths about alcohol need repeating.
The old story had years of repetition
A drink helps us relax. It is a reward. It makes dinner, holidays and celebrations better. We heard those ideas around us, repeated them to ourselves and strengthened them every time we drank.
Seeing through one belief once doesn't erase all those years. The old thought may still arrive automatically because it belongs to a very familiar situation.
It just means we've repeated the old thought a lot more times.
Knowing something when we're calm is only part of it
An idea can make complete sense on a quiet morning and feel much less convincing at the usual drinking time. Stress, tiredness, music, company or the sight of a bottle can bring back the old version quickly.
So reading it once isn't really enough. We need to be able to bring it back when alcohol starts looking useful again. If relief still seems to belong to the drink, we may need to look at what happened after that relief again.
Going back over the truths about alcohol isn't going backwards. We're reminding ourselves what actually happened when the old version starts coming back.
Repeat the part that keeps returning
We can leave the beliefs that no longer bother us alone. If the social belief has gone but reward keeps coming back, work on reward. If the first drink still looks harmless, revisit what happened after the first one.
This keeps the repetition focused. We're not reading the same material out of fear or trying to convince ourselves of something we don't believe. We're going back over the part we still find ourselves believing.
Put it in words we'd really use
It becomes more useful when we can say clearly what actually happened.
"Alcohol changed how I felt for a while and gave me more stress afterwards."
"I didn't want one drink. I wanted the effect to keep going."
"Alcohol wasn't making life better." "It was making life feel flat without it."
Those lines need to remind us what happened. At first, the truth might be about the hangover, but months later, it could be about everything we don't want alcohol taking from us again.
Use repetition before the old story takes over
It helps to remind ourselves earlier, before the usual drinking thought has really got going. If Friday evening is where reward becomes convincing, read the note or think the result through earlier that day.
Eventually, the answer may come up on its own. The drink appears and we remember the whole night, not only the beginning. That's what the repetition is for. Eventually, we don't have to work so hard to remember what alcohol was really doing.
— Brent