Lies and Denial

Day 21.

A common characteristic of addicts is that we lie. We lie to get what we want.  We lie about where we’ve been and what we’ve been doing. We lie about who we’ve been with. We lie about how much we’ve been drinking/ using. We are in deep denial about our problem, and the problems that surround our problem.  We lie so we can continue to feed our sickness. Some of the lies I told myself and others in the months before I got sober (my dark days) included the following:

• I don’t have a problem if other people in my life drink as much as I do
• I don’t have a problem if anyone else I have ever heard of has a bigger drinking problem than me
• I don’t have a problem if I can take care of my kids and home
• I don’t have a problem if I’m doing other healthy things-it’s called balance
• Getting blackout drunk is normal
• Vomiting is normal- the night after drinking AND the next day- all normal
• Calling out sick because you are hungover is okay
• It is okay to lie about how much I drink-even to my doctors
• I don’t have a problem if I don’t drink in the morning

Lying, in case you didn’t know, doesn’t get you very far in life.  You lie and then you need more lies to cover the first lie.  Then you can’t keep your lies straight and you find yourself lying some more. I lied to so many people around me, to all the people I love, but the person I lied to the most was myself.