If you are sad, grieving or dealing with a loss, will a few drinks kill you? Not likely, but worse, you could like the affect. If you are feeling down, lost and want to take the edge off with alcohol or other substances, don’t mask the pain, feel the feelings. You won’t die from feelings and loss is supposed to be painful. Numbing the pain now, will only make it last longer. It’s better to work through it now, than later.
Using alcohol is not a healthy coping skill, but a tempting trap to:
Numb oneself by masking issues and delaying the feelings we need to address to move on.
Self-medicate, which can lead to substance abuse, addiction and a host of new problems far worse to manage than the difficulty that got you down.
Avoid anxiety. Alcohol becomes a “crutch”, but one that can turn into more problems. We make bad decisions under the influence of alcohol.
Be mindful of your feelings and when choosing to use alcohol in moderation, think about why you are drinking. Assess, understand and build awareness of when you drink, how much and what emotion or trigger was behind your decision to drink. Commit to paying attention so that any decision to drink is not using it as a coping tool.