What Does Your Alcohol Voice Sound Like?

You Either Have a “Drink Now” Voice or You Don’t

You drink alcohol. You want to stop.

Now you have a voice in your head that says you shouldn’t stop.

Many times that voice doesn’t show up until you’re ready to stop. Why would it bother you if you’re merrily drinking along?

That’s your alcohol voice. It doesn’t want you to stop drinking, so it starts talking to you.

And then it starts screaming.

“DRINK NOW” is what it usually screams.

It’s a pretty dumb voice, but it’s also very loud and demanding.

It’s a bully.

Schizophrenia or Demon Alcohol?

In Erik Judd’s article, “The Week After 30 Days Sober”, he says,

“It’s as close to schizophrenia as I hope I’ll ever experience, the way my rational mind argues with my liquor demon — and it’s an argument I rarely manage to win.”

During one of my bad stints years ago, people would ask me why I was trying to quit. They didn’t think I needed to quit. I didn’t drink too much according to them.

My response was always, “The bottle starts talking to me around 10am.”

They probably thought I was crazy, but if you have an alcohol voice too, you know exactly what I mean.

“Drink me.”
“It’s not too early.”
“No one will know if you just take a sip.”

If you have an alcohol voice, the only way to make it stop is to quit drinking. Period.

And I’m sorry to say, as soon as you think you’re OK…
as soon as you think you can moderate and just have a glass here and there…
as soon as you pick up that bottle again…
alcohol voice will be back. Instantly.

I know this from 9 years of trying to quit.

At almost 1 year sober, alcohol voice is quiet now. Every once in a while it slips a quick punch in, “You’re good now. Just one won’t hurt.”

I immediately shut that down. “NO!” I yell back. “I’m free from your grip and I’m never going back. Not today. Not ever.”

Alcohol voice shuts up pretty fast when you’re serious.

If you’re not serious, it will harass you day and night, night and day until you give in again.

There’s a reason people call alcohol things like “demon liquor”. That’s way more accurate than most people realize.

If you’re serious about quitting, it’s time to start talking back to alcohol voice. It’s time to tell it to go back where it came from and get out of your life and your head.

You know how to get rid of a bully?

Punch back.