A common feeling among many people who struggle with an alcohol addiction is to feel a hatred towards themselves, or disappointed in how their lives have turned out. Over time, however, this self-loathing often evolves to a more general feeling of “being sick and tired of being sick and tired”.
Simply put, instead of feeling anger towards oneself for drinking too much, that anger now begins to be redirected toward the alcohol itself and the havoc is it CAUSING in one’s life.
If this sounds like you, first let me say CONGRATULATIONS on being sick and tired of being sick and tired! This may sound like a strange thing to say, but I think it’s a sign that you’re ready to DO SOMETHING about your problem, instead of just ‘wishing and hoping’ things were better. I view the general problem of alcoholism as a 5 stage process, as outlined below:
The 5 Stages of Alcoholism
- Stage One – You’re drinking too much, but are so caught up in the lifestyle that you don’t truly recognize how much damage alcohol is causing in your life.
- Stage Two – You’re beginning to feel depressed in a general way, but don’t necessarily pin the blame on alcohol. Instead you think you’re depressed over your marriage or your job, or something else in your life.
- Stage Three – You’re getting sick and tired of wasting money, time and energy. This may turn into a self-hatred as you feel disgusted with the way your life is, and where you’re headed. You may constantly “wish” things would change, but have no concrete idea of how to MAKE things change.
- Stage Four – You’re feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired. You recognize that SOMETHING has to change for your life to get better, and you finally realize that YOU are the one that will have to change it. You also finally recognize that, contrary to what you may have previously believed, alcohol doesn’t help drown your sorrows, but in fact CAUSES your sorrows.
- Stage Five – You’ve HAD ENOUGH. You finally TAKE ACTION to reduce or eliminate the alcohol from your life.(see: Take Action to Overcome Alcoholism and Baby Steps to Sobriety)
As you can see, feeling sick and tired of being sick and tired is how you feel JUST BEFORE you finally take action to change your life for the better. So, while at this particular moment you may feel a bit disgusted with the way your life is, you should also be HAPPY … because you are about to finally take action to get the alcohol OUT of your life so that true health and happiness can come IN.
After you finish this article I implore you to IMMEDIATELY go to Stage 5, and take action right now to move your life in a better direction. You’ll be glad you did! ♦