The Cut’s new biweekly column is talking drinking, not drinking, and everything in between.
Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Getty There are a few ways I could start this: Hi, I’m Ana, and I’m an alcoholic. Or: I’m in 12-step recovery. Or: I have alcohol-abuse disorder.
I can’t tell you how to quit drinking yourself. I can’t offer advice or endorse an exact and correct course of action or institution that will keep you, personally, from drinking. I also can’t tell you if you’re an alcoholic or if someone you know is. I can’t tell you if you should stop drinking or if you should cut down. God knows I can’t tell you how to make someone else stop drinking — mostly because you can’t.
I had figured out years previously that I couldn’t control how much I drank. Sure, there were times I could put the bottle down without even getting a buzz . However, I couldn’t promise myself, or anyone else, any particular night would be the night I could control my drinking. Every time I had a single drink, there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to stop.
Sometimes I think my extraordinary circumstances make me a bad example for anyone else who wants to stay sober. “Well, I’m not there,” you can say. “I just want to see what sobriety is like/lose some weight/have a little more control over my life/[insert something less than a life-or-death situation here].”
For you, perhaps the most relevant testimony I can offer comes out of a question I don’t get that often but I love to answer when it does come up: “Why do you keep not drinking?”
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