— Know The Terrain, Understand It, Then Fix It First. Only Then Quit Boozing Easily.

This post kicks off yet another multi-post series. You can scroll midway down on the homepage to peruse the 8 or so other past and present multi-post series I’ve published going back to 2013.

The reason for this series is my own personal discovery of how to make quitting alcohol remarkably and surprisingly easy.

This series is entirely focussed on total abstinence as the chosen approach to an individual having a problem with alcohol that has grown to become a serious problem. This is because it’s my approach, and not because I think there’s anything wrong with any other approach that delivers results. It’s similar to diets. They all work to shed fat/pounds, and that’s why they persist. A good approach is to find and adhere to the one that’s easiest for you!

There’s nothing wrong with easy (for you; may not be for someone else; not your problem) and if it gets real results then you’ve really discovered something. That’s what happened to me and I have an urge to share it, knowing full well that’s it’s not for everyone with this particular problem.

I’m in my early 60s—a “retired” expat living in Thailand. And, I’ve been a drinker for 40 years. But it wasn’t until sometime in my mid-40s that it often became drinking too much too often. Over the last decade, most days were TMTO days and they usually began pretty early.

…You’ll find that I don’t use stigmatizing, judgmental, and/or pretentious labels to characterize myself or others. As rule—or Principle #1—it’s all about actions and their effects. Words, labels, characterizations in this regard…they’re utterly meaningless. Even if in some sense “accurate;” meaniung, as generally understood as describing a typical set of actions, they accomplish nothing to diminish or fix the damage that drinking too much too often can usher forth.

…And whatever damage is caused…whether to finances, relationships, job, business, health, self-esteem, masculinity, and femininity…there is one and only one fundamental thing at the very root of all that damage.

That root is the individual choice to drink. Every time. Excepting anyone who’s literally been physically forced, every sip ever swallowed was by choice, and there are three simple elements surrounding that choice. Every time:

1. The composition (contains alcohol)
2. The quantity (too much)
3. The periodicity or interval (too often)

Take any one of those elements out of that chain of perfect-storm and you don’t have that kind of problem. Doesn’t contain alcohol? Well, drinking too much soda or fruit juice too much too often may present with problems, and some of the health ones are even the same; e.g., NAFLD—non-alcoholic fatty liver disease—constitutes an entirely meaningless distinction, an example of the uselessness of that word. Your liver doesn’t know or give a runny shit whether its excess buildup of fat is from barrels of bottom-shelf rye, kegs of Keystone, casks of bordeaux, cases of Coca-Cola, or a shit-ton of juice boxes.

…And ‘TiMTO’ doses of 100% organic fruit juice produces the same buildup of liver fat as glyphosate-spiked fruit juice.

So, after all’s said and done: Houston, we have a problem. That problem is drinking too much [alcohol] too often, regardless of the motivation behind the choice to sip, gulp, or chug.

The other thing my series is not about is spending inordinate pages on the psychobabble of how it’s not your fault, you have a DISEASE!!! or any of the other bullshit that serves to promote a whole lot of stuff and things that—and who—aren’t you!

The primary focus on this is that after dozens of failures going days to weeks without alcohol, I finally got it right and when I did—when all the elements were in place completely by accident—I was astounded it could actually be so damn easy.

Whereas, the drudgery of abstinence was on my mind every waking hour and in my dreams, before, I can’t recall even a single difficult moment once I stumbled into having everything lined up for not only success, but super-easy success and quite often enough, experiencing a pleasurable process of delight in not drinking at all.

So, it comes down to My Easy Way. Not “The Easy Way,” or any trademarked version of that and yes, I am familiar with Allen Carr and his EasyWay series of books. From what I’ve read about them, he offers a valuable approach that has helped millions. That’s good.

I’m sure there will be similarities but most of all, this is just my story. That’s it. It’s not any sort of prescription or proscription for anyone else but me. You simply get to not only look what I did, but see, sense, and feel how joyfully easy it was, and perhaps take a few pointers from that if you like and who knows? You might even have a more enjoyable go at it than I’ve had thus far.

I’m not lyin’ to ya when I say that I’ve loved the whole process from day one, and that’s after 4 decades of regular drinking with the last two of them, damn heavy. And not a single dull moment or regret, not a second of hardship, nor a single regret.

What have I lost? Not a fucken thing. What have I gained? Everything I can think of; all those synthetic impediments to achieving what I want seem to have magically vanished.

Up to this point I’ve written and published 9 posts about the process; and I’ve shot 11 off-the-cuff videos—hours of testimony, my raw and unedited thoughts, and recollections.

The Content

I don’t like food anymore (plus video) — The post and video that started it all, before I even knew alcohol would turn out to be the problem and stopping it was the solution within days.

Drop Alcohol and Work Out to Cure Loss of Appetite (plus video) — My last drunken video; and my last sip, memorialized on camera. The post was written the next day, sober. This is where I had put 2 and 2 together from reader suggestions and my own Occam’s Razor thinking, deciding to give alcohol cessation a shot to see if appetite would return.

Update on my Abstaining from Alcohol to Cure Loss of Appetite (plus video) — “It’s only 4 days in, but as I explain in the video, I’ve done this rodeo before but this time is remarkably different—a cinch. I explain in the video just why that most likely is, and it may offer good clues to those considering a trial run or a permanent thing. The first few days is the hardest. This time, it’s just not hard at all.”

“Alcoholic” is a meaningless, stigmatizing term serving moneyed interests (plus video)

1. Alcoholic and alcoholism are abjectly bullshit terms that serve a nefarious purpose
2. There’s an objective, fundamental, helpful, measured and scaled way to describe adverse issues with alcohol consumption
3. This requires zero clinical diagnoses, no doctors, armies of counselors and helpers, or anything else except your own choice

My Totally Unconventional Alcohol Abstention Method That Defies Experts (plus video) — This is where I begin to really start putting together the core and fundamental elements—way different than in previous attempts to stop—that are making this so easy and enjoyable.

Week 1 Report On No Alcohol For Me (plus video) — It was hard to believe it was only a week at this point. I’d been so excited about the ease of it that I wanted to get it all down and raw. that’s why so much video footage. It’s the real story. Unedited. This post is edited.

My EASY Freedom From Alcohol After Two Decades of Failure (plus video) — “I’d rather say that experience teaches us lessons and with those lessons we can do better. Success isn’t about getting everything right, it’s about getting better so that enough things go right that momentum takes over.”

Week 3 of EASY No-Alcohol; an Update With a Surprise Pretty Thai Lady Guest (plus video) — “But something was just missing from that incomplete explanation; but you’ll need to watch the 7-minute video to know exactly what it is and how you can immediately understand how to avail and advantage yourself in many areas of struggle. I’ll also toss in a couple of pictures of the pretty and adorable Sureerat.”

My Super Easy No Alcohol For 4 Weeks — “It has been a blast and will continue. After many failures over 2 decades of drinking too much too often, I got all the elements in place. The topic of this one is “time dilation” once you stop the booze.”

One Month No Alcohol Over a 99 Baht Breakfast and a Surprise Ending — “Officially a month, month number two comes with added limits.”

My Easy Way To Stop Drinking: Relationships — The Good and the Bad — 2 Months In (plus video) — This is the official 2-months post and video. The video was recorded on Pattaya Beach, Thailand on the day, 7 Oct. The post is still in draft. Should be up and linked here Sometime 18 Oct, 2022.

MY EASY WAY To Stop Drinking: Nothing To Be Proud Of (plus video) — The official 3-months post and video. You won’t believe the shooting location for the video and how I characterize it in both the post and the video.

Getting Free of Life-Draining Alcohol (6 months; video) — “And then alcohol said, ‘put that on Facebook, it’s hilarious.'” I write and talk about in video some of the things that change for you more slowly and over a longer period of time once you stop.

…And the series shall continue but while the first month was totally video dominant because I wanted raw, real, and off the cuff…from here out it goes primarily to writing. That will include getting transcriptions of all the videos and integrating the nuggets I find, into posts.

Wanna tag along?