How can I prevent relapse, and does all sober time count?

One of the questions that pops up most often is how to prevent relapse. It's understandably important to all of us non-drinkers. Visit https://www.thisnakedmind.com to start reading This Naked Mind for free today!

Annie Grace, author of This Naked Mind is answering reader's questions live. Today she answers, How can I prevent relapse And does all sober time count?

All personal breakthrough comes from a change in your belief system. The thing is that is your beliefs that have to change, not some formula or template and certainly not someone else telling you whats right.

My tips on how to prevent relapse:

Change by:

Associating enough pleasure with the new.
Associating enough pain with the old
Creating doubt.

If you question anything enough eventually you'll begin to doubt it.

This can work for or against you. If you question your decision to be free from poison you will begin to doubt your decision.

This is why my good friend Holly of Hip Sobriety has a beautiful tattoo with the letters NQYD. Never question your decision.

For me the answer on how to prevent relapse and how I found my freedom from alcohol was by allowing enough questions about what purpose it was really serving in my life. Becoming conscious of its effects and deeply wondering if the things I had been conditioned to believe about it were true.

New experiences trigger change when they cause us to question our beliefs. The thing about beliefs is that when we believe something we don't question it. We need experiences to cement our beliefs.

I hear examples of this all the time - you start to wonder a few months from drinking why you are doing this? The reasons begin to fade. You feel better, you forget what hangovers feel like. You begin to question. Which is OK. You drink. You experience this and guess what? You find your experience to remind you of all the reasons you quit drinking. You need your personal experiences both good or bad to cement your decision.

Both experiences of life without alcohol and with. How to prevent relapse is to seek the truth and believe it.

3 months - drank 2 days (from a nightly drinker). Called it 98% success. How cool is that?

What other thing do we measure by the same all or nothing stick?

We accept that other aspects or our lives our journeys but not this? It makes no sense to me.

Your desire for change will bring you change.

The road may not be straight,
your journey is beautiful
and no one can walk it but you,
but its only if you fall and don't get back up,
don't begin again you will stop making progress.