Why Do You Drink Alcohol The Way You Do? | The Conversation
Sobriety Coach: You don’t have to call yourself an alcoholic but I do have a question for you. Why do you think you drink the way you do?
Sober Student: That’s easy! Because I don’t want to care about anything.
Sobriety Coach: And why don’t you want to care about anything?
Sober Student: Because it hurts to think about. I don’t like thinking about all the things I don’t like all the pain that I felt, everything that I’ve been through.
Sobriety Coach: And why do you think it hurts to think about that?
Sober Student: Because every time I think about it, it takes me back to how I felt when it happened. Which puts me in a position where I literally need a drink just to escape the pain.
Sobriety Coach: Why can’t you just let the pain go? What’s stopping you from growing through it?
Sober Student: Because I don’t know how to let it go, alcohol helps me numb the pain. And if I’m numbing the pain and it’s the exact same as just letting it go.
Sobriety Coach: Why do you feel that you don’t know how to let the pain go?
Sober Student: Because pain is the only thing that I’ve ever known, and to let pain go, means to let the one thing that I know the most about go away, and I don’t like when things go away.
Sobriety Coach: So, all the pain that you’ve experienced matters to you?
Sober Student: Yes! I drink because I care not because I don’t care.
Sobriety Coach: So are you saying to let alcohol go, means to let the pain go. Which also means that you’re letting a major piece of yourself go.
Sober Student: Yes, exactly.
Sobriety Coach: Without alcohol, it’s fair to say that you don’t know who you are?
Sober Student: Exactly.
Sobriety Coach: I understand and it’s important that I remind you that you are still capable of becoming the person that you needed when you were younger.
