It all starts with the question: “Why can’t I just stop drinking?”and a refusal to take “because you’re an alcoholic” as the answer.
At age 27, I was diagnosed with an Alcohol Use Disorder. For years, these questions kept me awake at night:
- Is there something wrong with me?
- Will I always have to fight the desire to drink?
- How can I regain confidence and self-trust beyond alcohol?
- Is it true that I will always be an alcoholic?
To search for the answers, instead of walking into rehab, I walked into graduate school.
Without fully realizing it, I was searching for a way to make sense of my drinking without judgment and find a path to grow beyond it without surrender.
Through years of training in Clinical Psychology, working in the addiction field, and my personal healing journey, something emerged from my search that helped me answer my questions.
What Finally Made Sense
An Unwanted Drinking Pattern is not driven by alcohol alone, but by four intertwined invisible forces.
The needs we attempt to meet through alcohol.
What we believe alcohol can do for us.
The habit loops that keep drinking on autopilot.
The story that convinces us that change is not possible.
If a drinking pattern is maintained by more than alcohol alone, it takes more than "just quitting" to break it.
( If you’d like to explore the Invisible Drinking Loop™ more in depth, you can read the long-form essay here.)
What It Takes to Outgrow an Unwanted Drinking Pattern
If an unwanted drinking pattern is maintained by four forces, addressing each force individually is what it takes to break it.
Naming the Unnamed Needs and exploring how to meet them through value-aligned actions.
Examining the Unexamined Beliefs and rewriting them in ways that support a healthier relationship with alcohol.
Interrupting the Automated Routines and replacing them with new skills and tools that help build a thriving life beyond alcohol.
Recognizing the Limited Narratives and upgrading them into stories that foster growth and possibility.
I call this the Four Pillar System™.
Four forces, four pillars,
one intentional path to outgrow an old drinking pattern.
Meet the Creator
Hey, I am Jeanette Hu
Once a daily drinker turned psychotherapist, and today, the creator of the Invisible Drinking Loop™ and the 4 Pillar Sobriety System™.
For years, I was searching for something beyond what the mainstream addiction narrative and conventional recovery approaches could offer me:
- Not a diagnosis, but an explanation that would help me understand why I drank the way I did.
- Not a higher power, but a way to reclaim my power and agency.
- Not inspirational quotes or motivational slogans, but a map to heal and grow beyond the pain that led me to drinking in the first place.
Today, I believe I have found my answers, and I hope I can help you find yours, too.
Find Your Answers
If you'd like to continue exploring the Invisible Drinking Loop™, here are a few places to start.
A Free 5-Question Guide
to discover the 4 invisible forces that keep you stuck in the same drinking pattern.
Send Me the QuestionsA Free 5-Day Mini Course
to uncover the invisible drinking loo that keeps your drinking patterns alive
Sign Me up Today