I am confident and feeling strong in my recovery, but things are still not easy. I finished "This Naked Mind" which was eye opening and truly made me realize that I am in fact on the very best path. Annie Grace says, "When we want something to change in our lives, we usually start with a conscious decision. However, drinking is no longer a fully conscious choice in your life. Therefore, when you make a conscious decision to drink less, it's almost impossible to adhere to that decision because your larger, more powerful unconscious mind missed the memo." I think when I quit, I think my unconscious mind had already come to understand that alcohol was doing me no favors. "You only struggled to make rational decisions about alcohol because your unconscious mind had been conditioned to believe lies about alcohol and because alcohol's addictive nature physically affected you. The key is to make a conscious decision to see alcohol in its true form."
There are so many misconceptions about alcohol. "It's not that alcohol makes drinkers happy; it's that they are very unhappy without it." The addiction causes people to lie to themselves and convince themself that they are not addicted. Grace says, "Nothing says addicted more than trying to prove we're not."
There are so many points and facts made in this book that I wish I could shout from a mountaintop and shake all the people that don't see anything wrong with the fact it is a poison. It is the same thing as gasoline - what we put in our cars, ethanol. "The reality, when the sexy advertisements have been stripped away, is that the actual product is ethanol. It is a horrible-tasting, addictive poison. So we sweeten it with sugar and flavoring or process it to make it more palatable. The product's product is inebriation, a gradual deadening of your senses until you become completely intoxicated. And the side effects that are never disclosed are many." Big alcohol does a great job with marketing just like cigarette companies and Big Tobacco was one so successful in doing.. "The absolute best marketing firms on the globe, firms with psychologists and human behavior specialists on staff, are hired to create the ads. These marketers know that the most effective sale is an emotional sale, one that plays on your deepest fears, your ultimate concerns."
"Would we allow cocaine to be advertised in the same way? Can you imagine a $12 million commercial playing during the Super Bowl, with millions of young minds watching, proclaiming how amazing their lives will become if they snort a few lines? Why do we see cocaine and alcohol so differently, especially when, in the United States, alcohol kills 241 people per day and cocaine kills only fifteen people per day? Why do we glamorize the benefits of drinking?"
"Alcohol causes or contributes to cancer in different ways. When your liver breaks down alcohol, it produces a toxic chemical called acetaldehyde. Acetaldehyde damages your cells, rendering them incapable of repair and making them more vulnerable to cancer. Cirrhosis also leads to cancer. Alcohol increases some hormones, including estrogen, contributing to breast cancer risk. It also causes cancer by damaging DNA and stopping our cells from repairing this damage."
I write these things so I can remind myself of these things. "Alcohol erases a bit of you every time you drink it. It can even erase entire nights when you are on a binge. Alcohol does not relieve stress; it erases your senses and your ability to think. Alcohol ultimately erases your self."