Molly J. Watts - Breaking the Bottle Legacy: How to Change Your Drinking Habits and Create a Peaceful Relationship with Alcohol

How to Change Your Drinking Habits and Create a Peaceful Relationship with Alcohol

Molly J. Watts

I want to be very clear and up front.

This book is not intended to change the lives of those who are physicallyaddicted to alcohol. While physical addiction to alcohol is not as common as you might believe, it is real.

If you have developed an alcohol addiction, there are reputable professional programs that can help. You can achieve freedom from addiction, but there are medical interventions that may be necessary for your health and safety. At the back of this book there is a list of resources including a recommended resource for addiction and recovery.

For the rest

While physical addiction and the label of alcoholic may not apply, you picked this book up for a reason. Most likely, you have some sort of psychological dependence on alcohol, or an unbreakable habit and its a source of anxiety for you.

Its okay if youve tried to stop drinking and failed (that was me too). Maybe youve felt worry or shame about your drinkingthats okay (that was me too). Even if you have an ingrained habit of daily drinking, thats okay, (that was me).

And, did you grow up with an alcoholic parent? Do you believe that you have the alcoholic gene, or a genetic disposition to alcoholism?

Thats okay, because that was me too.

This book is for those who want to have complete and peaceful control over alcohol.

This book will help guide you through your own personal transformation. Its a judgement free zone. Its a tool, its a roadmapits real hope. If you put what you read into practice, you can:

• Break your daily drinking habit.
• No longer live in fear that you are following a genetic trail to alcoholism.
• Not worry that you are becoming an alcoholic.
• Be able take or leave alcohol without feeling deprived, without being uncomfortable at all.
• Have a life without the constant anxiety caused by alcohol.
• Create a peaceful relationship with alcoholpast, present, and future.

You can do this. I did this. And in my opinion, that is nothing short of a miracle.

With Optimism,

Molly Watts

The content of this book is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any condition or disease. You understand that this book is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Please consult with your own physician or healthcare specialist regarding the suggestions and recommendations made in this book. The publisher and the author make no guarantees concerning the level of success you may experience by following the advice contained in this book, and you accept the risk that results will differ for each individual. The testimonials and examples provided in this book may not apply to the average reader, and are not intended to represent or guarantee that you will achieve the same or similar results. In addition, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or any other inconsistencies herein. The use of this book implies your acceptance of this disclaimer. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations.

Copyright 2021 by Molly Watts

Join hundreds of people who are learning the science behind alcohol and determining what level of drinking is safe for them.

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Prologue

A s I type the first words of this book, laboring over the decision to call this first chapter a Prologue or the Introduction, I realize this isnt going to be easy. While that thought isnt shocking on its own, the reason isnt because writing any book is hard work.

At the very onset, my mind has already heard the voice of William Shatner calling out Captains log, stardate 8390, and Im down the rabbit hole looking up the definition of prologue. This is actually good because it tells me this is the right description. The fact my mind jumped to Captain Kirk, well thats the part giving me pause. The difficulty with writing the next thirty thousand or so words stems from my mind wanting to throw out lots of distractions and memories. Staying focused and finishing will be one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Its also one of the most important things I will ever do.

I have a passionate desire to make good on the dreams of writing I had as a child, and to offer real hope to other habit drinkers, adult children of alcoholics and anyone who worries about their drinking. This desire will push me through to the books completion. Youll forgive me, I hope, for a short tangent now and then.

According to Wikipedia, a prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. That feels right to me. Better than just an introduction. By sharing my minds small galactic blip, Ive given you a glimpse into something you might never have known otherwise. Im a sci-fi geek and grew up a bona fide Trekkie. Though its certainly not a critical jumping-off point, as I reflect on my childhood, it sets the stage for one of the clarion moments I had as an adult. I realized, long into my mothers addiction, that those years of elementary school and junior highwhen I came home after schoolher clear goal was to keep me occupied and not interacting with her. She had probably already been drinking by the time I got there. Or my post-school arrival marked the time her daily drinking began. Im not sure which. I do know I was most often set up watching cartoons, and eventually Star Trek, with a soda and chips.

I wont belabor the strong negative habit pattern those snacks presented for me because that could be a whole other book.

Whats key here, and what I realized looking back, was that my mother knowingly gave me unhealthy snacks and diet soda, and sat me in front of the television for at least two hours while she drank. In the beginning, it wasnt a lot, maybe only one scotch on the rocks before my dad got home. Over time, that increased and changed to vodka. During the early 70s she was still handling her liquor in the physiological sense. More importantly, however, she had started down a path, using alcohol to escape her feelings, isolating herself from her family, and hiding what was becoming more than a social drinking habit.

While this book will hold pieces of my mothers story, Ill never be able to fully explain or understand what happened in my mothers mind as she traveled down the path of addiction. She tried several times to become sober after I was grown and gone from home. Her last attempt, at the age of seventy-seven, is testimony to the fact not everyone with an alcohol addiction dies of cirrhosis by the age of sixty-five. It should also be a wake-up call to all of the baby boomers and Gen-Xers because alcohol addiction in seniors is on the rise, and as the baby boomers turn sixty-five at the rate of ten thousand per day, this problem will be a catastrophic burden for our country and the world by 2035.

Sadly, my mom never conquered her psychological addiction to alcohol. In her final attempt at sobriety, she spent