email from t: “Hi Belle, right around new year, I noticed that a lot of people thinking about their drinking and thinking that they might want to stop.
But as they recall numerous other moments when they thought about quitting, but didn’t, they figure, “‘What’s the point of trying?”
I know I thought this for a very long time.
While I wanted to stop waking up every morning feeling awful, I never realized that there is a part of alcohol that makes me think, ‘Maybe I should have a drink now’ which always led to ‘Maybe I’ll have another drink’.
It’s like alcohol comes with a virus.
It’s like getting an email every afternoon that says’“Click Here for an Amazing Rube Goldberg Video!’ The video is fun, but it has a virus that messes up your computer so you spend the next day waiting for your wifi to reconnect and babysitting your computer
Eventually you get the email every afternoon. Sometimes the link is the same and sometimes it’s something new like ‘Click Here for Amazing Wildlife Pictures!’ or ‘Click Here to See What You’ve Won!’
Over time, you notice that the link says, ‘Click Here to Celebrate’.
‘Click Here Because You Are Tired’.
‘Click If You’re Sad’.
‘Click Here When Out With Friends’.
‘Click Here Because You Always Click Here’.
After days and weeks and months with no wifi and endless hours waiting for your computer to reboot, you realize, ‘I need to stop clicking this link’.
And this is what I didn’t realize about alcohol — It’s not just a drink. It’s malware.
Thanks for all the work you do. xo T.”