Reply To: Strategy for a drinking problem
Paul McCabeHi Evan,
Thanks for your post and great input.
My own strategy would be to CT first, and then run some BBs or PP tracks. A combination of these approaches could work very well indeed.
I would personally start with the compulsions first – the strong desire to drink – and CT that.
As Brian mentioned, it can often be triggered by feelings of low self-worth. It is also a double bind, as it can also increase those.
Drinking alcohol is a conditioned behaviour, of course, and it can have many different origins/pathways and manifestations:
– “escape” or a coping mechanism
– social context (going to music or sporting events, being at college etc.)
– a survival strategy
– compulsion
– a way to fit in
– a social lubricant
– an emotional state-changer
Probably many more reasons.
A bit like smoking, it can also be useful to tackle this from an identity-level. For example, “what does drinking give you? or “what does it enable you to do/not do?”
It will tend to meet a variety of needs – certainty, a sense of significance, variety itself, for example.
It can be quite pervasive, as it acts as both a state-changer and also, in certain contexts, a way to connect with others. When drinking alone, it can also allow you to disconnect or reconnect with a problem.
In the Western culture, those who are a bit more “reckless” with the amount of drink and drugs they consume get attention and no small degree of kudos. I have lost count of the number of rock stars whose drinking binges were called “legendary.” I think that factors into it too – “”Being sober was boring”, “Drinking made me cooler”, “People loved when I was binge-drinking” etc.
Combine this with all the drinking games (e.g. Beer Pong), references and media endorsements and, for some people, there are a number of references that require resolution.
I have no judgment about any of this, of course. I used to drink a fair amount socially (probably…an excess before that) and I just don't drink at all anymore. This summer, I see people drinking outdoors every day and I am completely neutral about it.
It does not mean I would never have a beer in the future, but the desire to have any alcohol sits at 0 out of 10. I never targeted “drinking alcohol” with PSTEC or any other modality. Something tipped the scales, but I don't know what it was. Since this was long before BB and PQT came along, it does show that perhaps CTing on its own could do this.
I used CTs for minor irritations that popped into my mind. Previously I probably would have had a few beers instead 
So, yes, you're definitely NOT wrong, Evan. There are so many options for resolving behavioural and emotional patterns with PSTEC.
Thanks again for posting.
Paul
Paul McCabe – PSTEC Master Practitioner
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