Why do I Use? Why do I Drink?

The reasons why we use substances can be simple or complex.  At their most basic, substances flood us with dopamine (a feel-good neurotransmitter) which can be seductive enough.  As a result, they also help to "block out" or otherwise ignore stressors, challenging relationships, back-breaking work or past trauma.  So not only do we feel good, but we get to avoid some things, if only for a little while.

The problem is that anything we ignore, that is significant, tends to boomerang back at us.  Challenging relationships grow more challenging because we haven't been attending to them.  Work takes a greater toll on us physically because we are numb to the damage we are incurring to our bodies.  We don't change the stressors because we are numb to them and are therefore forgetting about them.  

The more those problems deteriorate, the more likely we are to continue to drink or use in order to forget them.  Now we are in a cycle.  Breaking out is possible, but it will likely require identifying the cycle and disassembling it a piece at a time.  I've been doing this work for almost twenty years now.  Change is possible.  Willingness is all that is required.