Take It or Leave It
This is the cleverest part of the trap. This is what really confuses everyone. If it’s the same trap for everyone then why don’t we all sink at the same rate? Why can some people take it or leave it and others can’t? This is without doubt the biggest illusion of all when it comes to alcohol, the mass delusion that people can take it or leave it. This is why there is a divide with this drug: normal vs. alcoholic. The truth is that the natural tendency is to take more and more of the drug, to keep on hitting the button like the mouse in the cage. However, unlike the mouse, we do have a higher consciousness and there is one main reason why some people do not increase their intake and become what society describes as an alcoholic and that is restrictions.
Think about it. The only reason why people do not drink more and more is because they are forced not to drink, either by themselves or society. It is only restrictions which prevent people from becoming what are described as alcoholics any sooner. There are so many restrictions when you think about it, whether it’s money, health, effects on the family, because you are driving, because you have to work, fear you will be judged by others, fear you’ll turn into an alcoholic, your children, social stigma, being physically incapable of coping with the poison or because you actually hate being drunk.
Money plays a major role in restricting people’s intake. After all it is a very expensive drug. Some people simply do not have enough money to increase their intake so they will try to gear it to what’s in their pocket. After all, they are already going to spend £100,000 on the drug as it is. It seems funny that the whole thing comes full circle with people at the entrance to the trap drinking cheap alcohol like cider and people at the end drinking cheap alcoholic drinks like cider. I reached the stage where I was drinking Tennants Super and Carlsberg Special Brew. Did I really think they were superior brands or was I simply trying to get more alcohol for less money? This is why people go from beer to spirits ; to get more alcohol for less money as, like all drugs, your body builds up an immunity so you need more and more to get the same effect. To get the extra in, it becomes easier and cheaper overall to drink spirits. The fact is that many people cannot afford to increase their intake so they have no choice but to hold it at some kind of level. Even this goes out of the window the further into the trap you get and you reach the stage where you will do without food, family and friends to get alcohol.
Health is another major restriction. Whether drinkers like it or not, the same drug that they think gives them pleasure also just happens to be the number two killer drug in Western society. Just because it’s not really talked about doesn’t change the reality. I used to have to watch my drinking because of my weight and my unattractive beer gut. Alcohol really does ‘weigh’ you down in every way.
Looking back now and seeing my drinking from an outsider’s perspective, I realise I had to exercise willpower and discipline to some degree every day. This discipline was forced on me most of the time but the confidence trick was so subtle that I thought I was choosing not to drink, not that I simply couldn’t. There were just so many restrictions preventing me from drinking more and more. When I had no job and was living in a squat in south London, I drank as much as my pocket would allow. When I had a job, I drank as much as my work would allow. When I was in a relationship, I drank as much as the relationship would allow and so it went on. Isn’t this true? Do you find that, sometimes, you simply cannot drink even when you want to? Do you find that if you haven’t got to work or are on holiday or not driving that you drink a lot more than when you have to restrict yourself? If you are honest you know that you do. Most drinkers do. If you don’t, the chances are you are already on skid row which would mean that you still have to discipline yourself anyway because of the cost.
If alcohol really did all the things that we believed, wouldn’t we have more courage, confidence and happiness first thing in the morning? Why delay happiness and have it as soon as we wake up? The reality is that, instinctively, we know that it’s all lies. If you drank in the morning you would have no life and would not even experience the illusion of enjoyment. You would feel miserable when you were drinking and miserable when you weren’t.
Many smokers have a cigarette first thing in the morning and still function. It is not seen as abnormal for them to smoke in the morning. Alcohol, however, is mind altering so you have to discipline yourself. Many addicts won’t even go out some nights because they have to work the next morning. Some addicts will go all week without a drink because of restrictions, whether it’s work, their children, having to drive, worry about their health, their money, their business or whatever. They have no choice but to abstain and many simply accept it and crack on with their lives. They are perfectly happy to do so, proving that the physical withdrawal is not the problem. However, as soon as the weekend comes and the restrictions are removed, they take the drug like there is no tomorrow and, having spent all week looking forward to the time when they can indulge, they lose the very weekend they were looking forward to because of that very drug. I know, because I used to do just that.
How many people do you know who say they only drink ‘every now and then’ but go mad either on holiday or at weekends? Holidays are the time when you see drinkers in their true light. Many drinkers who wouldn’t normally touch a drop during the day because of restrictions , often judging others who do, can be seen having a pint on the beach at ten in the morning. That is if they are up that early as, chances are, they won’t arrive on the beach until 1 o’clock because they were so plastered the night before. Of course it’s OK to drink at 1 p.m., it is perfectly normal, but what they fail to realise is that
they have only been up for an hour. But what the hell does time matter anyway? If you drink you drink. Do you think that you would look at a heroin addict differently if they said, ‘It’s OK, I don’t have my first “hit” until 1 p.m., I don’t need it first thing’? Of course you wouldn’t.
All drug addicts have to exercise control to some degree because of restrictions. The real slavery is this constant need to control and the biggest gain you will get from being totally free is literally that, your freedom. If you are being controlled in any way, then you are not free. If you are dependent on any substance, then you are not free. If you have to look at your watch to see if you can have a drink, then you are not free. If you have to hold it at a certain level because of restrictions, then you are not free. If you are timing your drinks, then you are not free. All drug addicts lie, including drinkers who say things like ‘I only have one glass a day.’ What they fail to tell you is that it’s a pint of Scotch.
There are only two reasons why people do not become heavy drinkers:
They are not physically strong enough to cope with that amount of poison at one sitting.
They have more restrictions in their lives that prevent the natural increase.
The majority of drinkers can turn into heavy drinkers in an instant. It only takes one really bad moment in life and, wham, they no longer have the strength or the
inclination to control their intake and the floodgates open.
Yes but what about …