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Originally Posted by Jkpoker10
Thanks for all the info and advice. I'm the type of person that thinks it's crazy when people won't drink and feel like I need to drink to have fun sadly. I feel awkward in social situations and speaking up so I feel drinking helps me get out of my shell. I think if I could hold drinking to say 4-5 drinks on a night out as a victory as I might only go out once a week with friends. I'll prolly see a counselor though.
I feel like I wanna relive college so I binge drink on weekends. I almost want to not go out bc it would totally stop the problem but I have to socialize with friends, etc.
Yeah, this sounds exactly like me other than that I don't have the social anxiety issues. Late 20s was the time that my drinking began to go off the rails. It's a time when there are major changes in life, with people starting to get married, have kids, get serious about their careers etc. If you're going a different direction than the white picket fence, like I did, then it's easy to be like "wtf why is everyone so lame now, let's get drunk and have fun, JFC what is wrong with you people". I know exactly what you mean about wanting to relive college.
It's very important to recognise a lot earlier than I did that alcohol is incapable of fixing problems. Whether it's "I get nervous", "There's not enough fun in my life" or whatever, trying to fix things with alcohol is going to make them worse in the long run. One of the things you learn from meditation is that your attitudes and beliefs and even who you are as a person are not fixed and are actually largely an illusion. It's one thing for me to say this like some sort of lame Facebook word-picture and it's another thing to have direct insight into the truth of that, which is what meditation can achieve, so I recommend it if you're interested.
If you're thinking "yeah but **** that, drinking is one of the funnest things in my life, I'll just cut down to 4-5 drinks and still get dat college-days flavor", or if the idea of going out and not drinking scares you a bit, then alcohol already has you in its grips and just forcing yourself to drink less won't fix that. Drinking less but not changing your attitude to drinking won't hold up in the long run. I'm not saying don't cut down, but you need a two-pronged attack.