The Clear Horizon

From oblivion of alcoholism into the light of sobriety

mental-health

  • Why I hate the winter time – and how to deal with it

    Sometimes it just strikes you down from behind like a thug with a log. From one day to the next, all the decisions you made, all the new habits accumulated, all the good things that have happened to me seem like dust in the wind. Then something like a depression pushes you down, aggravated by Read more

  • Job Identity and Drinking

    When you are so used to drinking after hours it can be hard getting into the workflow after vacation without booze. Let me explain. Daniel Schreiber, a German journalist and author, wrote that we pursue rather a “work – and – drinking” – balance instead of a “work – life” – balance. I don’t think Read more

  • When it can be helpful not giving a F*ck.

    This is a general issue, in this post I want to make a short notice on the way it affects your sobriety. Imagine an evening with a social situation, say, a family gathering or a party. You have been dry for a couple of weeks or months and try to maintain sobriety, but you are Read more

  • Normalising sobriety

    I am in good hope to having reached a new state of sobriety and in this state studying my feeling of getting resistent to alcohol temptations: By New Year’s Eve, I realised that something severely interesting had happened to the way I was watching alcohol. When I attended the Holiday Party of my company or Read more

  • But what if I am proactive and I get stuck…?

    Being proactive is king. But it won’t also be easy to always keep up with your good habits and intentions. Sometimes there will be obstacles in your way. The question will be, how to deal with the obstacles. First, let’s have a look at certain obstacles that may be in your way: This is not Read more

  • Proactive vs reactive. How a prefix determines your fate

    An interesting aspect of addiction and depression or anxiety disorders has (at least from my point of view) a lot to do with your own initiative. What do I mean with that? In various blogposts, coaching contributions and podcasts, as well as as in my own work and my own addiction, there is one common Read more

  • Midlife Crisis or Catharsis?

    Do I sound melodramatic? Maybe. But that is how most of the time you’ll feel when in a remorseful state you can’t escape if you want to quit drinking but can’t muster the strength to escape the loop of triggers, cravings, giving in to cravings and then swearing to never drink again just to find Read more

  • Gaming as craving Relief

    Be it Instagram, Facebook or other Social Media: They all have one thing in common with alcohol: They trigger our reward system with cues and cravings. The question is, how can you get by these cravings as a substitute for alcohol? I found out that uninstalling my social media accounts helped me a lot to Read more

  • Practicing: Hen or Egg?

    The urge to stop drinking had been implanted before. But as it is with bad habits or addictions, you promise yourself to stop drinking tomorrow, or dink less, or drink only on odd days, or whatever comes to your mind. What came across my mind recently was the question what caused what in the end. Read more

  • Alkohol happiness vs Real happiness

    Well. I would like to dive into something that has been on my mind ever since cutting back: Is the “happiness” that alcohol deals you, really happiness? And if not, what is, then? Well, cutting back or stopping to drink alcohol seems to be a double edged sword at first glance. At second glance, however, Read more