Drinking Leads to Thinking Which Leads to Drinking Which Leads to ... Ugh!

I used to think too much.

What are my priorities at work tomorrow? How do I fill my days productively now that I am retired early? Am I drinking too much? Why am I drinking too much? Do I want to quit? How am I supposed to put up with my wife who is always on my back? Why doesn't my daughter speak to me any more? How can I be healthy by drinking myself into oblivion?

"I wandered from room to room, thinking, drinking, drinking, thinking.... I never know which came first, the thinking or the drinking. If I could only stop thinking, I wouldn't drink. If I could only stop drinking, maybe I wouldn't think. But they were all mixed up together, and I was all mixed up inside." (The Big Book, "The Housewife Who Drank at Home," page 297)

My, my, my! It's relaxing now to let God handle the thinking. I ask Him to help me do His will, whatever His will might be. And then I'm done. What else is there to think about? In the words of the immortal Alfred E. Neuman: "What? Me worry?"

You know I must still think. But I no longer feel overwhelmed thinking about the burdens I listed above. Now I think about what I can do to help someone else. I think about how I can be friendly to people who are working at boring jobs that are making them miserable. Maybe I can lighten their day. Maybe I can turn someone away from drinking and toward a Higher Power.

Remember: "(Drinking and thinking) were all mixed together, and I was all mixed up inside."