Experiment: Alcohol Free Week

Last Sunday I drank an entire bottle of wine.

Why?  Because... I did.  Compulsion.  Shit, that's scary.

The Problem

Alcohol isn't tearing my life apart, causing me to lose friends and the trust of my family, but isn't this how alcoholism starts?  With a compulsion, a need to drink.  

I'd been sliding a bit with only 13 days without a drink in the last 8 weeks (tracked on the Way of Life app).  Most of which were having a few after work at home, entirely non-social drinks that sometimes escalated to whole bottles being drunk.

Habits

Years ago I read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg which introduced me to the Cue-Routine-Reward cycle of habits, which I think drinking had become.  So I broke my drinking into these three parts.

Cue

The cue for my casual, at home drinking appears to be as simple as being home in the evening.

Routine

Acquire bottle of wine, drink 1+ glasses.

Reward

Relaxation, a feeling of letting go of the day and focussing on something like reading or a documentary.

Swapping the Routine

The cue is unavoidable and the reward is good, so I needed to tackle the Routine.  In this instance the routine swap was pretty clear as I enjoy tea, and there are decaffeinated teas, so there you go!  

Forcing my hand to rewire the Wine Routine with the Tea Routine was harder.  So I messaged my sister: If I couldn't tell her that I had had no alcohol in the last week in 1 week, then I will write her a $2000 check.

Well it's been a week now, and so far so good!  Still have my $2000 and some respect for myself.

What I've Learned

I've learned to import lessons.  First, Routines are relatively simple (not easy) to swap if you can identify them.  Second, not drinking in social settings when others are is actually much simpler than I thought it would be.  After the ordering of the drinks and initial sips, the desire to join in greatly drops!  As long as you can decline that first step it's much easier from there.

Going Forward

Going 1 week without drinking is easy.  Going a lifetime is overkill.  I'm going to continue drinking socially where drinking isn't the task at hand (read: drinking to get drunk) but will continue with my Routine swap when at home so I don't continue that casual, at-home drinking that I find more scary.