Five Hard Truths About Getting Sober

Quitting alcohol was easier said than done.

After a decade-long struggle with alcoholism, I finally quit drinking four years ago. Getting sober wasn’t easy. In order to stop drinking, I had to accept some things about sobriety that I didn’t like.

Below are five truths about my addiction that I had to come to terms with to stay sober. Of course, not every addict is the same, so I don’t claim that these truths are necessarily universal. However, I strongly believe that anyone struggling with addiction should at least consider whether these apply to them.

I spent many years thinking about getting sober but coming up with excuses to put it off. I’d tell myself that I was too young, that I wasn’t ready yet, or that my life was too busy.

Looking back, I’m surprised by the mental gymnastics I went through to justify my addiction. Some of my excuses even directly conflicted with each other! For example, some days I’d say I was too stressed to quit drinking and other days I’d say I was enjoying relaxing too much to quit.

No matter what my mood was or what was happening in my life, I could always find a reason to keep drinking. In the moment, these excuses felt extremely compelling. However, eventually, I needed to face the music and admit to myself that I’d never really run out of justifications to postpone sobriety.

The truth was that there would never be a perfect day to quit drinking. No matter when I quit, it was going to be hard, and the longer I put it off, the harder it would get.

To get sober, I had to quit drinking despite all of my excuses, instead of trying to wait until the excuses ran out.

Another lie that I used to tell myself was that I could simply cut back on drinking instead of quitting entirely. I desperately wanted to teach myself to drink in moderation.

The vast majority of people in the world have no problem whatsoever with drinking one or two drinks and then stopping. They make it look so easy, and from what they say, it really is.

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