We Can't Selectively Numb

I used alcohol for a lot of different reasons over the course of my life.

In college it was to fit in and connect.
In law school it was to deal with stress and anxiety.
When I became a mom I used it as a coping mechanism and as a reward.
Then when my mom passed away I used alcohol to numb.

But here's what I learned ladies. We can't SELECTIVELY numb.

When you numb the bad, you also numb the good.
The happy. The joy.
The stuff that makes life worth living.

And while the numbing feels like it's temporary- when you're just having the drinks- it actually stays with you. The chemical reactions in our brain when we are regularly drinking means we are being pumped full of a sedative and a depressant. It means we feel lower and lower and lower.

This realisation was like a light bulb moment for me. I could dull the bad, but I was also hijacking my body's ability to experience joy. I was numbing my sadness, but also all the joyful blessings I had been given.

If you're using alcohol to numb pain, trauma or even just quiet the stress after a long day, it is so worth empowering yourself with the scientific knowledge of what really happens when you drink. One of my biggest "a-ha" moments was realising that my baseline mood was getting lower and lower, and that alcohol would only pick me up temporarily but then drop me lower than before.

One of the most incredible parts of taking a break from alcohol, I think, is having all that yucky sedative clear your system and experiencing the ability to get your joy back. Feel the good again!

Do I still have bad days? Heck yeah! But the good days are so good, I would never go back to not feeling them like I can now.