When I was in 10th grade, Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult were on tour together; it was called The Black and Blue Tour.
My friends were going, and I was desperate to go along, but my parents weren’t having any of it. I remember feeling like it was THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ever and it JUST WASN’T FAIR that I couldn’t go.
Now 40 years later, I don’t take things so seriously. There will always be another party or concert if I have to miss one. I don’t pout about it and expect you’re the same.
How Do You Feel When You Have Activities That Prevent You From Drinking?
However, until I changed my relationship with alcohol a few years ago, I was like this EVERY NIGHT about my few beers.
If I had some obligation that prevented me from drinking, I would resent it as much as I did missing that concert in 10th grade. It would feel like my life was incomplete and unfair.
Never mind that I’d had those beers every night for the past 10 years, and would get to have them every night for the next 10, I DESERVED THEM TONIGHT.
How To Stop Acting Like A Petulant Teenager Over Drinks
Have a look at your situation. Go deeper than your surface excuses of work stress, deserving a reward, or whatever other thought-blocker that you use now to justify deciding against yourself.
See if you are relating to your nightly (or weekend or whatever) drink with the same petulant attitude as a teenager.
Ask yourself:
Is tonight’s drink (or 3rd drink) really THAT important? Probably not.
How would you like to think about tonight’s drink? You can actually start thinking that way now.
Conclusion
The point of this is for you to have more ways to develop your awareness and focus on what’s going on in your brain because that’s where the problems and solutions are.
When you can watch yourself in action, with curiosity, not judgment, you can start to make the changes in mindset that will lead to alcohol being unimportant to you. That’s control.
What was a big deal to you in your teens?