Replacements

One of the key instructions essential to success is that you

DO NOT SEARCH FOR A REPLACEMENT FOR ALCOHOL.

We must get it clear in our minds that we do not need to drink anything alcoholic when we are socialising. Some people say, ‘There are only so many orange juices you can drink.’ It’s funny that they don’t say the same thing with alcoholic drinks, isn’t it?

The addiction is a disease and the disease ends the second you stop taking the drug alcohol. If you had a different progressive disease that was only going to get worse and you found a cure, would you be searching for a replacement for that disease after you were cured or would you simply breathe a sigh of relief not to have the disease any more? I know what I would do, which is exactly what I do quite often. I breathe a sigh of relief not to have to suffer mentally or physically any longer.

Why would anyone want a replacement for a disease? It doesn’t make sense. People only want a replacement if they think they are missing out on a genuine pleasure. It’s only because they still feel deprived. When people are driving, for example, they are forced not to drink alcohol, so they drink non-alcoholic beers and wines.

The only reason for this is because they feel as though they have made a sacrifice. During the three months that I gave up, I tried loads of non-alcoholic beers and wines but couldn’t get to like them. This was simply because they contained no alcohol.

If you were to switch to non-alcoholic beer or wine, especially during the adjustment period, there is a danger that, subconsciously, you would be impressing on your mind that you had made a genuine sacrifice. This could act like a dripping tap and make you believe you were missing out on something. If you were to drink these non-alcoholic drinks it would be exactly the same as an addict quitting heroin but continuing to inject themselves with a substance that cost the same amount as heroin, looked like heroin, felt like heroin, but had no heroin in it. Do you think that this would help them free themselves or drive them insane? Obviously, it would drive the addict insane because the only reason for seeking a replacement in the first place was the feeling of missing out.

As for the statement ‘There are only so many orange juices you can drink,’ there are millions of delicious drinks that do not contain alcohol. I drink plenty of them when I’m out and at home. We need to drink as it is part of our survival mechanism but we should only drink if we are thirsty. The reason that I could drink so much alcohol was because it was dehydrating me, so much so that I felt thirsty all the time. When you stop dehydrating your body, you will realise that you just

don’t need to drink all the time as a couple of drinks can last you all night.

I’m not saying that there aren’t going to be times when water just isn’t going to cut it, but there are many, many non-alcoholic drinks on the market like Amé, Purdey’s or Appletiser that really do taste pretty good. Also I’m not saying that everyone will hate the taste of non-alcoholic wines and beers, I’m just saying that most of them are full of rubbish and there is a danger that you could easily send subconscious messages to your brain suggesting you’re missing out, which is the last thing you would want.

There are many ‘experts’ who will tell you that if you stop drinking you need to replace it with something else. Like what? Meetings every week, perhaps? You will find that, after a while, you will have new interests , not as a result of replacing alcohol but because you are expanding your life and broadening your horizons. When you don’t need to drink you will want to do a lot more with your life. This is not replacement, it’s living. If you think you would prefer these non-alcoholic beers and wines because drinking orange juice doesn’t look very adult, then grow up. It was precisely that kind of thinking that got us trapped in the first place. People think that it doesn’t look cool to drink a soft drink but it isn’t very cool to get stupid, aggressive, argumentative , obnoxious, violent, uptight, hostile, fall over, slur your words, collapse, blow your mind or throw up either. You see, it’s all in the mind fed on adverts. Anyway ,

who’s to know that the tonic and lemon doesn’t have a vodka in it?

‘A pint of orange juice is the same price as a pint of beer, so what’s the point in switching to soft drinks as it will cost just as much.’ What’s the point? The point is to be free from drug addiction and it won’t cost anywhere near the same amount as being an alcohol addict. As I have already said, alcohol dehydrates the body making you drink more and besides, money is not a factor for alcohol drinkers who buy it for the effect of the drug. Having all the money in the world means nothing if you are a slave to a substance.

It is now very clear to me and will soon become just as clear to you, if it hasn’t already, that you were substituting when you were drinking. You were replacing real courage, real confidence, real relaxation and the real you with a false substitute. One of the joys of stopping is to not have to substitute or replace any more.

So now you realise that there is no genuine pleasure to be had in alcohol. You realise that it causes insecurities and stress, destroys your courage, undermines your confidence and is incapable of providing any genuine relaxation. You also realise that you are suffering from a progressive disease that will only get worse and worse. You are in the trap and, whether you knew it or not before you picked up this book, it is now time to gain the ultimate freedom from this slavery. You will have complete freedom from a disease that was undermining every area of your life, whether you were conscious of

it or not. It is a confidence trick on a massive scale, in fact, the biggest one ever to plague mankind. Now that you can see it for what it is, it is time to get very excited and time to realise that you do not have to continue drinking. It is now time to decide when you are going to have …