A Simple Path from Alcohol Misery to Alcohol Mastery PDF EBook Seb Grant Quit Alcohol Formula | Page 14

Part 3
Remaining a non-drinker:
planning for the longer term
If you have tried to break a habit before,
whether it’s biting your nails, smoking or
heavy drinking, you know that stopping
is not the difficult part. It’s staying
stopped that’s harder. As the pack-a-day
smoker says, “Giving up is easy; I’ve done
it hundreds of times!”. Habits are well-
learned behaviours. They seem to happen
automatically. It’s as if they have a life of
their own. But if we look closely, we can see
that this isn’t the case.
Things called cues
Habits are triggered by particular people,
places and events. These are known as ‘cues’
because they cue or prompt us to behave in
a particular way. There are two sorts of cue.
‘Outside cues’ are the things around us that
affect our behaviour. The ‘cross now’ sign at
a traffic crossing is an outside cue that tells
us when it’s safe to cross the road. ‘Inside
cues’ are feelings or thoughts that direct our
behaviour. Feeling thirsty is an inside cue
that prompts us to drink. Sometimes our
behaviour can be affected by a combination
of outside and inside cues. Imagine walking
past a bakery and catching the delicious
smell of freshly baked bread. Instantly you
feel hungry. In this case, the smell of bread
is an outside cue. This triggers a feeling of
hunger – an inside cue. Together, these cues
tempt you to go into the shop to buy a pastry
or bun to eat.
Drinking cues
A problem for heavy drinkers is that they
tend to be ‘cued’ to drink by many more
situations than moderate drinkers. While the
moderate drinker is choosy about where,
when and with whom they drink, the heavy
drinker is not. They may be tempted to have
a drink by something as simple as walking
past a pub. Even the sight of alcohol in a
shop window or on TV can set off the urge
to drink. In the same way, the heavy drinker
is more likely to turn to drink when feeling
bored, fed-up, sad, angry or happy than the
moderate drinker. The heavy drinker ends up
organising their life around alcohol.
You need to learn how to spot potential
drinking situations before they happen. You’ll
become aware of the cues that can lead you
to drink. Once you know where, when and
what your cues are, you can take steps to
avoid them. If they’re impossible to avoid,
you’ll learn to cope with them differently.
You’ll identify which situations may put you at
risk of drinking again.