"I have been abstinent for xx months, but I still feel like I am white-knuckling all the time."
Every now and then, a client says something like this to me.
It speaks to a pain that too many ex-drinkers have been living with: they've stopped drinking, but the desire to drink never went away.
...that feeling of being deprived of the evening drink to relax.
...that FOMO when watching others share laughter over a drink.
...that exhaustion from fighting against your own desire to reach for a drink.
I believe these experiences reflect one of the limitations of many mainstream recovery approaches. When all the focus is placed on changing alcohol consumption, people miss an important piece of the puzzle.
Behind every desire to drink, there is almost always an unexamined belief that keeps the desire alive.
When the belief remains unnamed and unchecked, the desire persists—even when the drinking stops.
But there's another side to this: When you weaken the belief, you also weaken the desire to drink.
That's why one of the major focuses of the Beyond Alcohol Project is helping people uncover and rewrite the hidden beliefs that fuel the temptation to drink. And every change begins by naming those beliefs.
Want to uncover your hidden beliefs?
I've created a Belief Audit tool with the 35 most common hidden beliefs I've seen during my years of work.
You can check it out using the link below:
