I just want to make a quick video about something that is really misunderstood when it comes to recovery. It's totally misunderstood or it's just miscompletely. And that is this and a lot of people believe it. Believe it or not, a lot of us believe it. And that is if we quit drinking alcohol, our life should get better. Okay? People miss, you know, read between the lines and that. You're going to say, what do you mean, Terry G? Well, life does get better. You might save money, be financially more well off because you're not boozing it all away. Your health might get better. Physical health because you're sleeping and maybe you're having three square meals a day. Or people are, you know, patting on your back, kudos. What a go Terry G. You're feeling finally sobered up. We all knew you're an alcoholic. It's about time. You know, in that way, it might get better. But does it get better in your emotional life? Does it get better in your thinking life, in your behavioral life? Is it getting better? For a lot of us, it gets worse when we quit drinking. And the reason for that is very, very simple. Alcoholism is a disease. And most of us who are watching this video have used alcohol as a medication or a coping mechanism for their life. I don't know about you, but I sure did. I didn't realize that and I couldn't put language to it to I was in recovery, but I did. I figured when I was about 18 years old, I started using alcohol as a medication. And let me tell you how I did it, okay? When I felt angry, I used alcohol to soothe me. When I want to ask a girl out, I was, you know, have a little drinky just to get some confidence up. When I felt past traumas in my life, the abuse that I took in my life as a child, I would drink, de-soothe myself, to calm myself down, not feel so sorry about myself. Those kind of things. I was using alcohol to control myself, to control my emotions, control my behavior, control the way I think, just to control my life and my environment around me. I used alcohol to do that. And because of that, I never dealt with anything. I came in to recovery and I was about 28. I got sober when I was 31. I never dealt with anything. I thought I was dealing with stuff through the drinking of alcohol, but I really wasn't. I was just putting it off or building it up. And that's why a lot of us drink more and more and more as time goes on. Because we need more of the medication, alcohol, to soothe ourselves. That's why we drink more. You know, our tolerance gets higher, our pain gets greater, our lives becomes crumbly or so we drink more. But you know what happened to me when I quit drinking? I went nuts. I went crazy. I used to hear that statement. My worst day sober was never better than my best day drinking. I used to hate that statement because my worst day sober was off. You know, terrible to my best day drinking. Believe me. Believe me, it really was. And I used to hate when people said that, but I hear that meeting. It would try me nuts when I heard that statement. Because I could not live with myself off the booze. I couldn't do it. I couldn't. And the reason is all that, you know, past life, that trauma, the anger, the grieving that we should have done, the dealing with our issues, the dealing with life on life terms, the little stuff in life, just life on life terms, dealing with stress, dealing with problems of life. I was like, I was naked in the world. It was like, somebody threw me in the middle of a desert. I didn't know how to do it. Because the alcohol used to do it for me. It used to do it for me. It gave me everything I needed to run my life properly. So I thought, but that's an illusion, right? That's an illusion. No diction, no drug, no medication. Nothing can really run our life. It's an illusion. It's an illness, right? That tells us that. So when I quit, it got tough. It really did. So if you're feeling like I'm describing in this video, if you feel that, if you're feeling uptight, and your life isn't going well, and you're feeling overwhelmed with your life, and you feel like you can't handle life on life terms, hey, I'll tell you something. You're in the right place. It's quite normal for that to happen. It's quite normal. And that simply is why we make that simply what alcohol looks like. An alcoholic looks like when they quit drinking. They look, they fall apart because their house of cards falls down. You know, what we thought we needed, we don't need anymore. What we thought we wanted is not what we wanted. I could go on and on in this recovery business, but alcohol takes us away from our true self. Alcoholism is a lie. We live a lie. We don't live our true selves under the spell of alcoholism or drug addiction. We don't live our selves. We don't live our true selves. It pulls us from ourselves. And it makes it very difficult to cope with life on life terms when we don't even know who we are. When we look in the mirror, we see ourselves physically, but we don't understand what makes us tick. We don't. But through recovery and taking it one day at a time, in 12 step groups, smart recovery, a church-based group, therapy, doing all that kind of stuff at understanding. That it's going to take time and doing the steps in alcoholics and non-immos. And getting involved with people, our sanity will slowly come back. But it's hard. Getting recovery is hard, but understanding that it's hard and it'll be difficult is half the battle. It's half the battle. You will get better despite yourself as long as you don't drink. Because the cure pushes us forward. Every day that we're off alcohol, we're forced to learn how to live without it. We're forced to have better relationships. Or we'll just simply drive ourselves nuts. We're forced to get along with our boss better, to treat our children better. Because that's what happens to us. Because if we don't, we'll just simply drive ourselves nuts and go back out drinking and never get the hang of this recovery business. Recovery is, ugh, it's heavy. It's like walking in quicksand sometimes. It really is. But you'll get a hang of it, believe me. You stick to it. And you work a program of recovery, the one that you choose to work. You find a higher power that you choose and you just go for it, man. Get honest. If we are true to ourselves, you know, the truth will set you free. If you are true to yourself and you start getting vigorously honest with yourself, you will find your way back to reality and you will have a fantastic, fantastic life. It won't be perfect. But let me tell you something. It'll be in real time. It'll be in real time and you'll feel good. But if you're feeling terrible in early recovery and you're feeling like it's not all worth it, and your life is in turmoil and you're in an emotional basket case, I applaud you for being sober. I applaud you for having the courage to say enough is enough. Whatever it takes, I'm going to do that. Whatever I have to do to get recovery, I'm going to do that because that's what I had. I had that kind of attitude. I don't care what it takes, I'm going to do that. I know I messed up. I know I'm screwed up. But whatever it takes, I'm going to find my way out and I'm going to become a better person, not just to myself, but to the world around me. I'm going to do that. That's what I'm going to do. And that's what I've accomplished. And I continue to do that. I continue to do that through service, helping others, going to work, getting a paycheck, helping people, doing all that kind of stuff. And I know I'm getting a paycheck, why not sound like a big deal, but when I was on active alcoholism, I was a leech, I was a mooch, I was living on welfare, I never paid for myself at all. And me paying for myself was a great thing for myself as a team. And I know some of us can't work again and that's fine. You have to do your own stuff, right? But just for myself, okay? So that's all I have to say. Stick to it, take it a day to time. And your miracle will be just around the corner, okay? My name is Terry G. This is an alcohol-free life channel where we're going to live sober one day to time. Just remember one thing, okay? If you don't remember anything, remember this. sobriety is freedom. sobriety is freedom, okay? Take a second, it's described, subscribe to my channel. Take another second and hit that like button. Take another second and patch yourself on the back and say, you know something? It's not easy, this recovery business, but you know, it's well worth it. Kudos to everybody, God bless you. I'll see you next week and child for now. Bye-bye.