Alcohol Warnings I Would Give My Younger Self.
By: Lisa Martens
Tags: Drinking, Alcohol, Self, Mental Health, Health

Alcohol Warnings I Would Give My Younger Self.

Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash

You don’t need it to have sex — In fact, your best sex will be sober, and it’ll take you years to realize that…years of wasted intimacy.

It will make your anxiety worse. It will disconnect you from people. Maybe some people can use it to connect, but not you. And that’s okay. Stop trying to force that narrative upon yourself.

The second you have to make up rules, you’re losing. Only drink after 5? If you have to think it, there’s a problem. Allow yourself to forget about alcohol for days, for months.

It’s not a reward, and it’s not a punishment. It’s not reserved for joy, and it’s not a pick-me-up. Reasons become excuses, and then every day will come with a reason, a price tag.

Doing things is a reward in itself.

Find friends and hobbies that do not revolve around alcohol. Dancing. Singing. Sports. Volunteering. Find people who do — and who need to be sober in what they do. Find important reasons to be sober and rejoice when you realize you feel better and perform better that way.

Never drink unhappy.

Don’t romanticize your pain. Just feel it. It will pass and you will be you. You make you special — not your pain.

Just be nervous onstage. Deal with it. If you drink to deal with it, then your success will always use drinking as a crutch. So stop the shot before the performance — maybe do it after, but you’ll find you might not feel like it anymore.

Yup. It makes your period cramps worse. You’re not imagining that.

Drinking is not a personality trait.

You don’t need to drink to make art. You need to be the best you can be…the best and clearest to catch ideas out of the wind. The darkness will only clog your intuition and fill you with fear. You need clarity to make art.

If you need to drink to handle your job, you need a new job. If you need to drink to handle your friends, you need new friends. If you need to drink to cope with something, eliminate or minimize whatever that something is.

Sadness just wants to be felt. It’s harder and scarier to run from it than it is to feel it.

Mental pain can manifest as physical pain if you numb it for too long.

Help people out of their downward spirals without throwing yourself into them.

Who you date influences your behavior and hobbies. Choose wisely…and yes, you can choose. You can choose a partner who will encourage you to be unhealthy, who will require you to save them and depend on them, who will not commit and who will claim destruction is love, or you can choose a partner to grow with who will encourage you to be the best version of yourself.

You can say no to and break family cycles and patterns. You do not have to be addicted to a substance because someone in your family was. You can heal your pain and end the cycle. You are not bad, and you are not doomed. You can be better. You can do the work they were unable to do, for whatever reason.

If you want a drink, just wait a half an hour, and see if you still want it. Most of the time, the answer is no.

That dude pressuring you to drink every time you’re out is not your soulmate.

People will try to rationalize that it’s healthy. See that for what it is — clickbait, advertisement, and denial.

You can change. Your brain can change. Everything you do changes you, body and mind. Every decision matters. Every single one. Being drunk one night does not somehow cancel out months of sobriety. All of the work you do to heal yourself is sacred.

People regret what they did not do — not taking risks, finding love, following their passions. They never say they wish they had consumed more alcohol.

Learn from them.