Hi Brooke!
I am entering my 3rd month in SCS but only just started actually doing the work to begin my journey to stop over drinking. Long story short, I used to hardly drink at all until about 4 years ago and progressively started increasing the frequency. My tolerance is very high now (4 glasses of red wine is nothing!) and so I want to cut down so I can go back to having only 1 glass of wine a night for health reasons (stay at desired weight, heart health etc).
This past Friday, my 2nd day of diving deep into working the plan, I had a major health scare – I thought I was having a heart attack! Previous to these past 4 years, I was in amazing shape and very healthy. So I immediately attributed my decline in health to these 4 years of progressively over drinking and spent all day terrified I had brought this all on myself. Fortunately, a trip to urgent care proved I was not having a cardiac event however, I feel like I have truly convinced myself that had I not began over drinking in the first place, this would never have happened and I definitely wouldn’t be 20 lb overweight as I am now. In the 24 hours where I thought I was having a possible life ending event, I was overcome with sadness and terror at cutting my life short w my husband and family and friends all because I liked to drink a bunch of wine.
For these past few days since this happened, I have had zero desire or urges to drink so my question is: Is it possible for the “animal brain” that once was programmed to think drinking alcohol was necessary for survival be suddenly reprogrammed by having this life scare? So now that animal brain instead views alcohol and the thing that it needs to stay AWAY from to actually survive? If so, is it temporary i.e. my desire to drink will come back now that I know I wasn’t having a heart attack even though I convinced myself that drinking is the root of all my health issues? Today, would definitely be a trigger day – my husband is away on business so when I’m home alone I usually over drink – and yet, I still have zero urges to drink at all.
Thank you for your help and insight!
Lisa
