Why Escaping Your Problems With Alcohol Never Works

Have you ever noticed how alcohol can make a stressful day seem to disappear… until the next morning?

In this episode of The Pink Cloud Frequency, we're exploring why alcohol doesn't actually solve our problems, it simply postpones them. Whether you're drinking to cope a problem or difficult emotions, the temporary relief alcohol provides often comes at the cost of personal growth.

You'll learn why every challenge in life has two purposes: to be solved and to change you. When we use alcohol to escape discomfort, we don't just delay solving the problem, we delay becoming the person capable of overcoming it.

thepinkcloudfrequency@gmail.com  

https://facebook.com/briana.wynn.33  

http://instagram.com/thepinkcloudfrequency/

https://www.threads.com/@thepinkcloudfrequency

http://www.youtube.com/@thepinkcloudfrequency 

*Your monthly support - for less than a cup of coffee! - helps keep this space accessible for women choosing clarity, energy, and purpose on their alcohol-free journey. You can also CashApp $tpcfrequency Thank You! XXoo

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Pink Cloud Frequency. I am your host, Brianna Wynn. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have ever noticed how alcohol can make a really stressful day disappear until tomorrow, then this episode is for you. I am so excited to get a little bit deeper and discuss how alcohol postpones our problems while also delaying the growth needed to solve them. This really hits home for me because anytime alcohol entered the picture, it suddenly felt like my problems went away. As a single mom, there have been many times in life I've worried about my finances. But as soon as I started drinking, those worries seemed to disappear. I would spend money on the alcohol I was drinking, buy more as the night went on, make purchases as a result of my intoxication. And all the while, my problem was actually growing. The alcohol didn't remove my financial issues, it postponed them and more importantly, delayed the growth that I needed as a person to actually solve that issue. Escape may feel good in the moment, but it actually keeps you stuck because anytime you're using alcohol in an attempt to escape a problem or escape an emotion like stress, loneliness, overwhelm, anxiety, what you're really escaping is the opportunity for growth. Think of any problem or challenge in your life that has caused you stress. And instead of dealing with it head on, you drank. For a few hours, everything feels less urgent. Escape requires nothing from you. When you escape through intoxication, you don't have to have the difficult conversation. You don't have to apologize or face the finances or work on your relationship. You don't have to clean the room that's overwhelming you or schedule the doctor's appointment or ask for help, help, or process that grief. You don't have to admit to anyone that you're exhausted. That's why alcohol feels like it works temporarily. But when the alcohol wears off, the conversation is still waiting for you. The relationship still needs attention. The finances are still in the red, the bedroom is still messy. The grief is pushed further beneath the surface. The problem itself wasn't removed. It was postponed. And postponed problems become bigger problems down the road. Let's say that you are dealing with the death of a loved one. That pain feels unbearable in the moment. And you may drink to cope with it. But the next morning you wake up, your loved one is still gone. But now you have a hangover on top of that heartbreak. You have dozens of missed calls, text messages from family and friends. People are asking you to help with decisions about funeral arrangements. The bills, the paperwork, the legal documents and insurance claims, all of that still needs your attention. Your children, who also lost a loved one, they also need comfort and reassurance. Work is down your throat trying to figure out when you'll be back. Everyone is grieving, including you, but you still haven't processed the loss. So the grief is waiting for you exactly where you left it. And this is exactly what happens with all of the challenges you may be facing. When drinking becomes the response on a regular basis, the gap for you to deal with it widens. Because the conversations that you're avoiding, those become more emotionally loaded. The decisions become more urgent because now the deadlines are passing. Relationships can become strained if other people feel that you've withdrawn or you're unavailable emotionally. Everyday responsibilities pile up, creating stress on top of more stress. The problem itself feels more overwhelming because it hasn't been worked through. It's simply been postponed while all of those new stressors accumulate. So the question we need to ask is what is it that you're really trying to escape? Is it in fact grief? Have you lost a loved one recently? Is it exhaustion or overwhelm? Maybe disappointment or uncertainty? Because the drink itself is usually never about the drink. It's about relief from what you're facing. But relief isn't the same as resolution. And when you choose to drink to escape the problem, to get relief from the problem, you lose the opportunity to become the person who can actually handle it without needing to drink. Every difficult situation in life, it asks something of you. Maybe that's your patience or courage. It may ask you to communicate better, to be disciplined. Every problem is a challenge that has purpose within it. But when you remove yourself from the process, you also remove yourself from the opportunity to develop the very skills that would help you overcome it in the first place. Every problem has two purposes. One, of course, is for the problem to be solved. But the other is to change you. So when we escape the problem, we delay both. Now let's say that your problem is financial. You're buried in credit card debt because of years of impulsive spending. That credit card statement hits your inbox and your chest tightens. Your stomach drops. You stare at the screen completely overwhelmed. When you pour your glass of wine at night, you're not craving the wine itself. When you pour the glass of wine, you're not thinking about, oh, this is going to taste so good just because it's going to taste so good. You're pouring that glass of wine, knowing the mental relief that you are about to experience because you're looking for an escape from the overwhelm. But when you drink, you don't actually learn the skills to solve the problem. You don't learn how to call the credit card companies and negotiate lower interest rates or ask for fees to be removed. You don't learn how to build a realistic budget. You don't learn to delay gratification when you want to make another purchase. You don't learn to sit with discomfort instead of escaping it. You don't learn to make consistent decisions that slowly rebuild your financial life. You wake up, the debt is still there. Only now you've lost another evening, you've lost more money, you've lost your patience and resiliency, you've compounded the problem, and now you still don't have the skills to solve the problem. And what's even worse is that you've postponed becoming the kind of woman who confidently manages money, the woman who builds wealth instead of debt, the woman who makes financial decisions from intention instead of emotion. The woman who no longer lives with money hanging over her head. Now I know budgeting may sound basic, but if it were really that simple, then millions of people wouldn't be carrying credit card debt. Budgeting is a skill. Delaying gratification is a skill. Spending your money intentionally is a skill. And those are skills you develop by engaging with your financial problems, not escaping them. So whether it's budgeting or having difficult conversations, setting boundaries, asking for help, regulating your emotions, those are all skills. And skills are developed through practice. Every time you escape discomfort, you miss an opportunity to practice the very thing that would move your life forward and to become the person who lives on the other side of that problem solving. When alcohol becomes your default response, you are developing dependency. You're taking an active stance to do nothing about what is right in front of you that needs to be solved. And honestly, as mothers, we already understand this principle because we have the tendency to do this with our children. We hate watching our kids struggle. So we step in because we want to fix everything for them. We want to protect them and take away every uncomfortable feeling. But if we rescued our children every time, we would be asking nothing of them. They would never learn resilience or confidence. They would never discover how to problem solve on their own or what they're truly capable of. And as adults, it's as if alcohol becomes that parent that comes in and rescues us. Except it doesn't teach us anything, it just delays the lesson. Every challenge you face without escaping becomes evidence that you are, in fact, stronger than you thought. So even though alcohol may help you escape for a night, freeing yourself from alcohol and learning how to manage your problems or process grief that changes who you become for the rest of your life. So for your reflection, ask yourself: is the thing you're using to escape actually what's causing you to need to escape in the first place? Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If it resonated with you, please leave a five star rating on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you next Wednesday.