Every now and again, I am told my message, “Simply because you struggle with alcohol, does not make you an alcoholic,” is going to kill people.

It’s on the premise that alcoholics will use my words as an excuse to drink.

I want to be clear; I don’t address, diagnose, nor treat alcoholism.

My message is one I so desperately needed many years ago. If I would have had a safe space, an alternative resource to sort out my thoughts, ideas, and beliefs to understand how my choices were leading my behavior, perhaps life would have been different. We will never know for sure.

Simply because you struggle with alcohol, does not make you an alcoholic.

I subscribe that our beliefs lead our lives and manifest our truths. Whether they are founded on evidence or hearsay when we look at them as unshakeable facts and not willing to be open to what else, we put ourselves at a high risk of ignorance and entrapment.

I have come to junctures in my life where I had to choose between what I believed and what I didn’t know. If I would have continued to live with my belief that I had a monster growing inside me, lifting weights and getting stronger, waiting for my moment of weakness to take me down, I was simply going to dive nose first into a bottle of booze.

I couldn’t LIVE life in constant fear. Maybe I’m not alcoholic. Maybe I’m just a girl who mismanaged her world and used alcohol to blur the lines. Perhaps, I am an alcoholic that learned a different way of living. What if it doesn’t matter what I identify as and just didn’t drink? What if alcohol was no longer the focus of my life? That’s where I started many years ago.

Fear can be a great motivator for some. It can be a significant deterrent to others, keeping them from even exploring the possibility of living sober.

There are many who with awareness of just how powerful they are in creating a heart-centered life, rise above the need to numb out.  It’s from this place of fulfillment they are able to let go of the struggle.

I mean no disrespect. Alcohol abuse can be a matter of life or death. I know what it’s like to drink yourself into a corner and not know how to get out. I know what it feels like to not want to do life anymore.

There is a broad continuum of alcohol use that spans between normal and alcoholic. The struggle doesn’t begin at the end of the continuum. It develops along the way.

You don’t have to be alcoholic to get help.