What’s your reaction to “just don’t drink- it’s easy to just not put something in your body.”
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Somebody said not drinking is about more than not drinking, but really it's about not drinking.
What does it take to stay sober? You can't drink, correct?
You don't want to get drunk or high, don't use drugs or alcohol.
It's really not that simple, but yes it is that simple.
When I decided to stop drinking and drugging, I made a choice. I had no idea, the amount of internal and external work it would take to maintain and stand by those convictions. Yet here I am with some time and looking back, it was worth it. I believe in my heart I could not go through that again. I have come to believe my bottom has a trap door, through that door is death. Today I choose to live. 
out!!
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Easier said then done .
I choose to avoid people who discredit my accomplishments.
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I heard this once and liked it, "imagine a man in handcuffs. He can't get them off by himself and they are starting to hurt his wrists and making simple things difficult to do. He asks his wife for help and she agrees. He needs to take them off. He can't even hold their children or take care of their family but she can't help him to get them off. They go to a doctor and he says that yes the handcuffs are causing his wrists damage and they're going to get infected. He recommended he urgently take them off. Everyone agrees he should take them off but no one helped him find the key ... " Made me think.
When I'm active in my alcoholism which I haven't been for a little over a year but to have someone say just don't drink would be the equivalent of asking a bird not to fly. It takes a community of support to get and stay sober
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I think people that say things like that have a serious lack of empathy.
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If they don’t struggle with it themselves they have no idea of the daily mental battle and don’t even realize they’re being insulting.
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Find something they can’t quit and use it as an example . For most people it’s caffeine . Most will never go without it . Caffeine is a drug . You could also use food . Most people can’t stop eating processed junk because it’s addictive and easy to find everywhere.
That’s how I did it, I made up my mind that I just don’t drink anymore. 621 days and counting
It gets easier.
Hi Rich. Great point. Breaking away from my toxic relationship with alcohol and drugs, I could argue that the first 5-7 years of my recovery to be very challenging. Simply due to the complexity of my lived experience, huge learning curve, I can be stubborn at times. Hehe. Despite that time, everything learned, blah, blah, blah...i still struggle with smoking cigs. I smoke about a half pack a day, been that way for some time now. I can't seem to come to terms with it, I ask myself on occasion, am I just being lazy or smoking has not cost me enough yet to make "the choice" to change? Maybe a little bit of both!?
Thanks Rich! That makes perfect sense. I am caffeine free, I stay away from sugar (everything seems to have sugar) I only eat fruit, no sweets. Booo..lol. Smoking is like my last frontier, like I said, I just can't seem to put my finger on it. I do think, as you stated, exercising would prove very useful in quitting. Maybe I will take a shot at it. I can put a game plan on paper/hold myself accountable. And I will bring my "poor me's" and my " I can't take this chit" onto Loosid for support!
It’s not my job to explain mental health issues to people. I have to make sure I don’t drink
The sad part is even the people who say "just don't drink" are battling addictions of their own, it's not just drugs and alcohol that create addiction, it's people, behaviors, food, anything really, also a lot of "normal" drinkers may have the ability to moderate themselves now, but alcohol is a highly addictive substance, under the right circumstances anyone has the potential to become an alcoholic. It's years of dangerous marketing and societal indoctrination that causes most people to say things like "just don't drink". It's cognitive dissonance. A harmful, and highly addictive poison is so normalized that non drinkers have to explain themselves for abstaining, doesn't make sense 
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I tend to simply ignore it and brush it off. That argument isn't worth my time not is it my problem to try and educate them. Let go and let God
The physical act of not drinking is the easy part. The dealing with the mental issues that caused the drinking in the first place is hard.
The "just don't drink" part is difficult at first but easy shortly after(for me at least) its the living a better life, being a better productive person, making the right decisions, and helping others that takes a lifetime of work.
AA has shown me how to do those things