Here's the next in my series of 31 reasons why I'm doing Dry July. This one won't be too much of a surprise - I hope!
Day | Wednesday 5th July |
|---|---|
Days without alcohol | 20 |
Funds raised | $2,299.70 |
Badges earned | Fly me to the moon |
I'm feeling | Harikoa/Happy |
Alcohol is habit forming and addictive
Forming habits is something that humans are good at. Most of us got drilled in some way as kids to form good habits; brush your teeth, make your bed, don’t slouch, eat your greens.
I don’t know if everyone has this problem or it’s just me: I can form a bad habit in a heartbeat but somehow forming a good habit always seems to be a struggle.
And so, for me, forming a habit with alcohol is easy. The first Covid lockdown was a great example. At the end of the day the wine came out right on the stroke of 5pm. Quarantinis with friends were common and it seemed we all slid so easily into a way of thinking that made it all so acceptable. World ending, may as well enjoy a drink.
Funnily enough, it wasn’t that easy to apply the same regular discipline to exercising in the morning even though we all had more time available. So along with a lot of people I know, I started to lose condition and get fat.
It doesn’t take long for our bodies to learn that a particular treat will arrive at a certain time. We end up craving it at the expected time or even in advance, which makes it harder to skip it even once without feeling like something is wrong.
For some people, this becomes a downward spiral at the bottom of which is alcoholism, the inability to stop drinking at all.
I’ve seen the effect that can have on people that I care about. One of them is my good friend Edward Bear, who tragically had to go into rehab after the first Covid lockdown.
So that is one more reason why taking a break from alcohol is no bad thing.
Even better is you can help someone else by doing so.
And that’s my fifth reason for doing Dry July.
You can get behind my campaign by donating here
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