When I was 29,I gave up drinking.
When I was 37, I quietly started again after mulling over the idea of revisiting wine.
My throat warmed with an old, familiar pleasure: Oh!
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In the past, Id developed a long and complex history with alcohol.
I began drinking socially in high school, but my habit took off in college.
I didnt drink to relaxI drank to escape.
My then-therapist helped me recognize that self-talk as anxiety and self-loathing.
offered delectable blips of freedom from the insecurities that had haunted me for so long.
Alcohol made me feel intriguing and powerful.
I could go to parties without wanting to crumple into a corner and disappear.
But the alcohol wasnt expelling my darkness, it was only masking it.
One day, it became too much, so I stopped drinking altogether.
When I got sober, my life quieted down.
But then, eventually, I felt ready to try that glass of wine at dinner.
Peele says natural recovery is actually far more prevalent than you might believe.
For some, a stricter schedule and shifting priorities make drinking and hangovers less practical.
The vast majority of people who [outgrow it] are hidden from view, Dr. Peele says.
You cant ask your doctor for a simple, conclusive blood test to diagnose alcoholism or addiction.
This theory can prove comforting because it indicates that addiction is not a choice or a moral failure.
But it also implies that addiction is fixed and unchangeablea life sentence youre stuck with forever.
But what this model misses is a person’s unique relationship to alcohol and why exactly they use it.
For someparticularly those who have physical withdrawal symptoms when they stop drinkingrecovery may require professional assistance.
“You could be in danger of experiencing seizures or a stroke.
You need detoxification in conjunction with therapy, Dr. Cidambi says.
And for many of these people, abstaining from alcohol entirely may be necessary to stay sober.
For gray-area problem drinkers (people like me, throughout my twenties) there may be other options.
Three years after that experience, I made the decision to go to 12-step meetings, she says.
I began to see the benefits of not drinking and what I could accomplish when I cut back.
Still, she admits that her relationship with alcohol might always be complicated.
And dont feel pressured to label yourself or your behavior if that’s not helpful to your recovery.
I still battle depressive thinking, but I’m older, so I deal with it differently.
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