What are your triggers for drinking alcohol? For me, it’s driving home. I don’t know why. Because my house is chaotic? I never think about it at work. But the second I leave that parking garage…that’s a different story.
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Drinking, watching other ppl I know go outside to smoke.
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Stress is a major trigger for me. I’v been sober for a year but as soon as I start to feel stressed alcohol pops into my head. Before that I didn’t really need a trigger… any excuse/reason to drink and I drank
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Boredom and feeling lonely. When I am engaged and with people I have no desire for alcohol.
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@Fancy. The drive home after work was definitely a trigger for me too. I have an hour drive home from work and half of that is back roads. I would pick up beer at the halfway point, and down a couple tallboys before I got home. Sometimes I would pick my kids up from practice on my way home and I couldn’t even keep from drinking with them in the car. I would get anxiety just thinking about driving by the store and not stopping for beer. I would rarely leave any beer in the fridge. I would drink it all cuz I knew if I left one or two it wouldn’t be enough for the next day, so I stopped almost daily for more beer. I was a bad influence for my kids, and my son just got his drivers license. I hope he makes better decisions then I did.
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@Jojo. Stress is a big one for me too. Usually trying to deal with drama at home from raising teenagers, and occasional financial stress pushed me to self medicate with beer.
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My tap opens for a combination of all of the above reasons. Add a marriage without affection etc… the main trigger is I love the taste of beer and it’s become binge drinking every night. Can still function at work but craving a beer by knock off time
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Our minds are crazy, being sober i’v learnt so much about alcoholism. I now recognise my ‘alcoholic’ mind and when it tries to play with me, sometimes it creeps up on me and I don’t realise. Like now I’m currently working a night shift (in the uk) something pissed me off earlier today (doesn’t always take much) and i’v been stewing over it all night to the point where I’m like 'f**k it what’s the point, I’d rather drink myself to death, luckily my ‘regular’ mind knows that this is my alcoholism talking. Its hard though, alcoholism is described as ‘cunning, baffling and powerful’ and it really is
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Yep @CCC boredom and loneliness is a major trigger for me too, it’s basically where my drinking took me, alone, bored, not wanting to do anything about being bored either. I got told in rehab that boredom stems from feelings of anger and frustration, something I didn’t understand for a while but I get it now.
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@Fancy you’ll probably find you can find loads of reasons why, though I guess your mind is fixated knowing you can get a drink on the way home, my mind used to be like that untill I bypassed the waiting to drive home and started drinking at work too 
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@FreshOffDenial Wow…your story hit home the most. I also live an hour away, back roads mostly, and constantly thinking about it when I’m bored especially. The gas station down the road is a major trigger for me.
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For me it started out as a social thing and then it was really any reason to get drunk whether it was good or bad. It got worse being in an unloving relationship for so long, stressed about work, bills, body issues you name it i had an excuse for it.
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Let’s just say I’m so glad I found this group. Thank ya’ll so much. You’re helping already.
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