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MUSINGS
My Mental Alarm Clock: “Hey, You Need a Drink!”
Having traveled a long and winding road to recovery, I have often heard the word ‘trigger,’ that external force or event that causes us alcoholics to pick up a drink. A trigger is usually associated with some form of stress.
Sounds like an excuse.
I was never big on the ‘trigger’ reason when it comes to drinking. As a recovered alcoholic, my whole life was a trigger. I drank because I am an alcoholic.
My life, wife, work, clients, money, lack of money, stress, boredom; you name it, they were all reasons to pick up a drink.
My last pick-up (I was drinking codeine cough syrup toward the end, but that’s a whole other story.) was when my wife and I moved to the left of our business into another office space. It all went well. No stress. In fact, I had been sober for a few months, and life was looking as positive as it ever had.
And still, I went out.
A good friend stopped at a liquor store to buy weekly lottery tickets. He had nine years of sobriety and had been buying lottery tickets at that store virtually all his adult life. Granted, there are better places for an alcoholic to buy lottery tickets than a liquor store, but it had never been an issue.
