Mar 15 2010
The Drinking Diary
Awhile back, I wrote about Coping with the Holidays and gave you some tips to help curb your drinking during this stressful time.
How did you do with those tips? Were you able to reduce or eliminate your drinking by getting more sleep and exercise?
If you noticed that you drank more than you anticipated, or were not able to handle the stress without a drink, you are not alone and you are not a failure. Making life changes is hard work and doesn’t happen over night.
We’re winding up the first quarter of the year, and it is a great opportunity for change – a time to focus on you and getting healthy, so you can be at your best in the office and with your family.
An effective way to get started is to identify your drinking patterns and triggers by keeping a journal of your drinking activity. Start with writing down when you drink and how much you drank. Think about why you made a decision to drink and what activities made you want to drink more. Documenting this information will help you begin to identify patterns in your life that lead to excessive drinking, and this is an important step in your recovery. When reviewing, study these activities to become aware of any patterns you’re seeing, and make a plan to avoid those situations, or do something in its place to reduce your chance of excessive drinking.
As a part of the Freedom From Alcohol® treatment program, I’ll help guide you through the process of healing. Our practical guide and proprietary software program are designed to assist you in identifying your drinking habits, triggers, and other conflicts that lead to your drinking. With these tools you can document your thoughts, feelings and other revelations about your drinking to aid in the ongoing dialogue you will have with me throughout your treatment program.
I’m available to answer any questions you might have about the program and whether it is right for you. For more information, or to start your treatment program today, please contact me.
Michael, this is an excellent article. I have stacks of journals from the first few years of staying away from a drink.
My favorite page in one of them is when the miracle happened for me. In all of the entries prior, I would write something like; “I woke up anxious today.” The day when the peace of God became evident was the last day I ever wrote the statement.
Somehow since then, I have always known that He was with me. It was the beginning of living a life filled with faith in God rather than fear.
It is very true that keeping a journal helps us to identify the times when we are struggling with issues in our life that used to cause us to seek out a drink for relief.