I’ve found the R.A.I.N. technique to be quite helpful in identifying and releasing negative looping thoughts. Releasing our negativity into the vast ocean is liberating. With fewer negative thoughts to suppress, I feel less and less a need to self medicate with alcohol and marijuana. The less I self medicate, the better I feel, the less I self medicate. Win, win, win.
I’ve been questioning the increasingly slippery slope of my use disorder and considering a path toward sobriety for years now.
A few weeks into my sobriety journey, I noticed I was starting to save money and a lot more than I expected.
We trade the instant dopamine rush for a lingering feeling of guilt and disappointment that itself is cured by, you guessed it, another instant dopamine rush
You could say that between the exhaustion, weight gain, and increasing frequency of negative thinking, I had become sober curious. Should I go to AA like my brother, sister-in-law, and a good buddy of mine? Did I need that kind of help? I was certainly open to the idea. Especially since I had noticed a new drinking motivation arising: drinking to relieve hangovers.