This guest post comes from writer and Mental Health Coach Paulette Crowley, who has been sober for 10 years. You can see her Sobriety Chat here and find her online at Good Health Coach. 

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It’s week three of a brand new year and it’s a safe bet that many New Year’s resolutions about pushing booze to the curb for good have taken a spectacular dive and have themselves ended up in the gutter.

We probably all know that a resolution about giving up booze, or changing any type of behaviour, is unlikely to work without long-term lifestyle changes that support sustainable habits. This is easier said than done for most people, especially when it comes to dealing with alcohol addiction, which is notoriously tricky to solve.

After years and years and YEARS of trying to get sober myself, here’s what I reckon. We’re approaching the mammoth problem of kicking booze all wrong. While changing long-term habits is definitely part of the secret sauce of sobriety, your mindset needs to make a significant change in order to get alcohol out of your life for good.

A long-term condition

Many of us live with a long-term condition, or chronic condition, as healthcare professionals like to call them. Think diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma or high cholesterol. If we get a diagnosis along these lines, most of us will accept what the doctor says, take the suggested treatment and start working on the necessary behaviour changes. We will realise that these conditions, once developed, are unlikely to reverse. We know that they are with us for life and accept that they must be managed, not cured.

I think that accepting that you have an addiction to alcohol is the first step to building sustainable sobriety. There is no room for bargaining, or wishful thinking that it might magically disappear if you just give it a break for a while. The bottom line is, if you’ve experimented enough with trying to get sober, and constantly failed, you’ve probably crossed a line that you can’t come back from. That line is called addiction, and there are really only two options once you’re in that territory – you keep drinking and live with the consequences, or you stop drinking completely, for good.

If you’ve completely accepted that the alcohol monster has got you and that it’s unlikely to let you go unless you cut off its supply, you’re halfway toward building a strong foundation for sobriety. The next part of that foundation is realising that addiction will always be with you, whether you’re actively drinking, or practicing sobriety.

I get it, it’s only natural that your brain will rebel against this seemingly helpless position - that you don’t have any control over your drinking, and you never will again. But instead of blaming yourself for not having the willpower to drink moderately, consider the fact that alcohol addiction is not a moral failing – it’s a chronic health issue that needs treatment.

If you need convincing that your addiction is not down to you being lazy or weak, check out what the ‘bible’ of psychiatry, The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders says about alcohol use disorder. It’s all there in black and white – this is a significant health issue which often requires long-term treatment, including professional support and serious lifestyle changes.

So, if you find yourself flat on your face again after yet another failed resolution, take some time to reset your thinking about what you’re actually dealing with here. Dealing with alcohol addiction is not as simple as vowing to eat less chocolate, go to bed earlier, or saving money – it’s a long-term health condition that needs serious support to get well in the beginning, and a rock-solid management strategy to stay that way.