Making Excuses to Drink Again

Sometimes I hear about someone starting to drink again, and I wonder immediately: what did they start to tell themselves about alcohol a few days, weeks, hours before drinking? What excuses did they make to open the door to the possibility of drinking?

I know humans have an infinite ability to rationalize almost any behavior – and some people can rationalize more than others, allowing the most extreme behaviors.

I mean, there are people who can rationalize murder! So it isn’t surprising that an alcoholic could rationalize drinking again. 

The excuses I’ve heard:

I was under a lot of stress at work

I have bad money problems – I just cracked

My husband cheated on me

My mother/friend/someone died and I took it hard

I am afraid to fly and I had to get on a plane; I was so utterly petrified and I just heard myself ordering a drink – it wasn’t really me!

I thought everything was going so right and life seemed so easy; I thought, “Maybe I didn’t really have a problem – it was just that my life was lousy back then. Now my life is good – why would I drink too much?”

I felt uncomfortable because everyone else was drinking and they kept pushing me to have just one