I will not drink alcohol today.
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For those who might want to give up drinking altogether, (the ‘ongoing’ part of this thread?) I used a little trick to achieve this, way back in 1992. Prior to using the ‘cheat,’ I would give alcohol up for a while, then go back, then give it up, and so on.
I wasn’t ‘breaking the cycle.’
Not permanently, anyway.
So what did I do?
All I did was tweak my message, from:
“I won’t drink this weekend/ this month/ this type of alcohol/ on these occasions/ etc.,” to simply:
“I don’t drink.”
After about one month of using that messaging to myself and others, I didn’t “struggle with drinking” again, as the fact that:
“I. Dont. Drink.”
Was now part of my identity and who I was - I was simply a non-drinker.
I’ve been alcohol free since that very day. And life went on. I didn’t die from not drinking alcohol. There were only upsides to it.
Why did it work for me?
“I will not drink for (X amount of time)” gave me the option of drinking again at some future date. That’s fine if one wants to allow the option of continuing some sort of relationship with alcohol down the track. And that’s all good for some people. For me, I couldn’t see any real benefit to the drinking at all. Nothing was left in the ‘pro’ column. Plus, I was sick of the on-off system that didn’t really work for me. Using, “I don’t drink” also meant that I didn’t need to daily remind myself after one month, as it became part of who I was.
I remember that I read about this little trick in a book that was about permanently changing habits. After one month, your mind gives up the fight and accepts that this is your new and permanent reality.
Hope this may help someone.
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I do this with cigarettes, have to remind myself sometimes that I’m not a smoker anymore. It works, good suggestion
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I wish I could remember what book I read it in, to give credit to the author. It worked for me, literally like magic. Prior to that I was a (functioning) daily whole bottle of vodka drinker.
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Interesting. This sounds like neuro-linguistic programming.
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It may have been one of those books. There was certainly some psychological research detailed in the book.
I’m getting to the point where I’m ready to programme that truth into my mind.
I use the daily confirmation at the present as I grow increasingly aware that I DONT DRINK.
I’m not going to count the days for much longer either.
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And congratulations on 31 years of being free. 
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Thank you.
Now if I could only give up my cocaine habit that easily… 
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I’ve never understood the glamour of sniffing turtle food, off a piss soaked toilet seat, through a filthy bank note covered in traces of other peoples hepatitis laced blood.
My job working for the cocaine advertising board was short lived.
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Indeed. The one and only time I tried it was the most spectacularly seedy night I’ve ever had.
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I tricked myself for over 35 years into thinking ethanol was a glamorous and intelligent choice. 
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Is there a such a thing as fake alcohol that satisfies your alcohol craving but doesn’t make you drunk?
Yes. Alcohol Free beer, wine, spirits all exist. I drink AF beer as a substitute. Some of it is shit. AF Budweiser sucks. Some of it is great. AF Heineken is good.
I found it didn’t really satisfy the craving, edibles would be my preferred alternative
I believe that is called being Cali sober.
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So what’s the medically acceptable way to treat severe alcoholism?
Don’t you think that question goes against the tenor of this thread?
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AF Budweiser
How so? There are people who are physically dependent on alcohol, if they quit cold turkey they get sick. So what should doctors do about that?