Blog 95 Addiction: Shaking the Habit
Recently, I listened to an
interesting interview with Annie Grace, where she described her addiction to
alcohol and how she eventually overcame it.
One of the things she did was do extensive research for a year about how
to overcome addictions (in her case, alcohol) and how to reconcile conflicts
between the conscious and subconscious minds regarding habits and life
choices. The person’s conscious mind
might want to stop drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes or consuming large
amounts of sugar, or whatever else a person might do that impacts their health
and their self-esteem negatively, (to say nothing of their finances). But their subconscious mind may want to
continue engaging in addictive habits.
Until a person can resolve this conflict, they will be struggling with
themselves, something that consumes energy and negatively impacts health and
self-esteem in the long run.
She presented approaches
which had worked for herself. For one thing, she
had never labeled herself as an alcoholic, and felt that her attitude gave her
more power to take the next step. She stopped drinking alcohol for one month. She stopped 100% and promised herself that
after a solid 30 days without alcohol, she would then allow herself to take a
drink, and she had to do this mindfully. This meant that she was completely aware of what
she was thinking, feeling, tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing, and touching as
she purchased the alcohol, as she took it home, and she opened the bottle, as
she poured herself a drink, as she raised the glass to her lips, as she took a
sip, as she swallowed, and as the alcohol then traveled down her esophagus and
into her stomach. Now, understand that
she already consciously wanted to quit, but her subconscious had felt
differently. She chose a month free from
the substance because by that time, the physical aspect of the addiction would
be past, and what would be left was the mental and emotional attachments. When she listened to her mind and body as she
took that first sip after 30 days, she realized that she did not even like the
feel of the alcohol in her body. She
also understood that she had survived emotionally and socially for 30 days
without the substance. She was able to
quit, and no longer felt conflicted regarding alcohol consumption. Understand, if she had been so addicted that
she had severe shakes when she stopped drinking, then should would have needed
some professional help to free herself from the substance. Fortunately, she was not that seriously addicted.
Annie
Grace has shared her experiences and approach to quitting free of charge, and
has helped many other people free themselves from alcohol addiction. Some of
these people occasionally may have a drink. One to two drinks per week probably
will not increase the risk of cancer, stroke, ulcers, autoimmune illness, heart
attack, etc. But more than this can
negatively impact one’s health. And
generally, when people have been struggling unsuccessfully with a habit for a
long time, they are relieved to finally succeed in freeing themselves. It would make no sense to go back to the way
things were.
Something
struck me as I listened to her interview:
the same method of quitting alcohol should be helpful in quitting any
other substance, as long as as a person is not seriously physically addicted. I am including a link to Annie Grace speaking
for a few minutes about her overcoming her addiction. If that sounds good to you, or if you think
it could help someone you know, you can find more information on her
website. Here is the link: it would be best to cut and paste it to your browser. Free
Alcohol Experiment program
This blog’s offer: Consider having several sessions of hypnosis,
as well as self-hypnosis instruction to help quit any undesired and harmful
habit. As a certified hypnotist, I can
offer this service and instruction. Happy
New Year 2020.
